Okonomiyaki

I'm back...mostly.
This is an attempt to get me to cook more and think about food more.
And what better way to get the ball rolling again than to make okonomiyaki!  My absolute favourite Japanese dish, though I never had it in Japan (go figure)!
Recipe as follows:

2 cups flour (plain is fine)
1.5 cups water or stock
2 eggs
half tsp salt or dashi
quarter of a cabbage
ham
sausage
shallots
nori
wostershire sauce
ketchup
soy sauce

Mix flour, egg and salt and water til smooth. Pop in fridge for 30 minutes.
To make sauce, mix three equal amounts of ketchup and soy and wostershire sauce together.
Cut cabbage into small pieces and add whatever else you have around.
Fry for 10 mins on each side.

Top with sauce and kewpie mayo.

Xmas Menu

At Xmas time, I am the cook. I am the one who stands in the hot kitchen for 28383 hours making food that my family are always too drunk to remember eating. Alas, I love it and here is this year's menu in the making (pics to follow post-Xmas):

- Traditional prawn cocktails with homemade mayo

- Champagne sorbet

- Rosemary and paprika mixed nuts

- Coddled eggs with basil, roast tomato and bacon

- Baked plum and clove glazed ham

- White chocolate and nutmeg cheesecake

Can.not.wait.

Green tea and plum jam biscuits

Green tea is possibly my favourite thing in the world of food. I saw a recipe for jam drops and changed it by adding green tea and plum jam.

80g butter

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 tsp of vanilla essence/paste

1 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup custard powder

2 tsp green tea powder

2 tbs milk

Beat butter/sugar together. Add milk and vanilla.

Sift in flour, green tea powder and custard powder, mix to soft dough.

Roll into balls, press in to make a small well - add 1/4 tsp of jam.

Bake 15 mins at 180.

Pumpkin “whoopie” pies (USA)

I have been hearing a lot about whoopie pies lately, and thought I would give them a burl. Half biscuit/half cake, they are pretty damn good and very easy to make. I used a maple/butter icing for the middle. They are extremely light and pretty addictive...there are also a million different flavour combinations to try.

2 eggs

2 cups of pumpkin mashed

1 cup oil

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

icing sugar

butter

maple syrup

Mix the eggs, pumpkin, oil, sugar and vanilla together. Add flour and spices slowly mixing.

Dollop onto tray in smallish rounds, cook for 12ish minutes til slightly browned.

Whack on some of the icing, and snadwich them together.

Custard filled Danish pastry

I have been craving this for weeks now, but had put it off because of the disbelief in myself that I could possibly pull it off...turns out it's not so difficult, and is probably my (new) favourite pastry to make and consume. If you love the taste of croissant or flaky goodness – then give this a go, for shiz.

The all important pastry:

3 cups plain flour

250g butter, chilled

1 egg

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

7g sachet yeast, dried

¼ warm water

½ cup milk

Combine warm water and yeast into a bowl, give it a mix and let it aside for 5ish mins.

Mix flour, salt and butter in the food processor til the butter is slightly mixed in. Be sure not to mix the butter in any more than, say, one 1cm, or it won't be flaky.

Mix milk, egg and sugar into a bowl. Mix. Add the yeast mix, which should be frothy by now.

Gently add the milk etc. to the flour mix, folding in VERY carefully, so as not to mix in the butter.

Put in fridge for a couple of hours (about 3ish).

Once firm, roll out into a square (about the size of a typical square baking tray). Fold over into thirds, like a letter going into an envelope. Roll again, do the same. Roll AGAIN, do the same. Place, folded up, back into the fridge.

Take out once firm again, and use to fill any kind of shape you like with whatever you wish – I used custrard and plaited it...easy once you know how. I put some almonds on the top of the custard too...

Trio of tapas

Croquettes, mini meatballs and baked stuffed cabbage rolls

I've never made tapas before – mainly because it seems fiddly and annoying...I decided to give it a go, seeing as though I have uni work to do and was feeling like procrastinating as much as possible.

This all took quite a bit of time, but was worth it.

The croquettes are like creamy, bechemel- sauce- ridden crispy little nuggets of goodness.

Croquettes

½ cup flour (plus extra for dusting)

1 egg

70g breadcrumbs

50g butter

50g cheese

bacon/ham/prosciutto

300ml milk

oil to fry

salt/pepper

Make a regular rue – melt butter, add flour, cook off flour for about 4 mins, add milk slowly and make a thick paste. Take off heat, cool in fridge for 30 mins. Add bacon etc. and cheese, stir.

Shape mixture into small batons (little logs), and coat in flour first, egg, then breadcrumbs.

Fry (shallow) in oil (sunflower ) for a few mins each until brown. Be VERY careful taking them out of the oil, as they can fall apart easily. Drain on a towel.

Mini Meatballs

300g mince (beef/pork/lamb – your choice)

1 onion

parsley

50g breadcrumbs

1 lemon

1 egg

tomato puree

sugar

Cook mince and onion til brown/cooked. Cool.

Add egg, breadcrumbs and parsley to mixture and mix well. Roll into small balls, place in fridge to set for 30 mins. Fry on high heat for a few mins, then put into an oven tray to bake in the oven for another 20 mins.

Heat puree and sugar, then add to meatballs in oven tray. Serve with squeezed lemon.

Cabbage rolls

½ head cabbage

200g mince

½ cup cooked rice

1 egg yolk

1 onion

Cut the 'v' out of the cabbage bottom – place in boiling water for 5 mins til soft (yeah, the whole ½ cabbage). Take out and cool.

Cook mince, onion til brown. Cool.

Cook rice – absorption of whatever you like. Cool.

Once mixtures are both cool, add egg yolk and mix together well. Salt and pepper.

Carefully take the cabbage leaves off, one by one. Dry well.

Roll the mince up in the leaves – about 2 tablespoons for each leaf – and place in oven tray.

I put some tomato puree on top, left over from the above meatball recipe.

Bake for 25 mins.

Rice milk custard tarts

This was a bit of an accident – adding rice milk. I had run out of normal cows milk, so substituted it with rice milk. It turned out pretty yummy, and is good if you're intolerant to cows milk.

The recipe is easy – apart from the pastry – but I love making pastry so it wasn't a bother for me ;)I used packet custard powder to make it simpler, though you could make your own if you like.

Pastry

1 ½ cup of plain flour

125g butter

¼ cup caster sugar

1 tablespoon water

1 egg yolk

Put flour, butter and sugar into a food processor – process til it looks like crumbs. Add the water slowly and the yolk til it comes together. Knead til soft (about 2 mins). Wrap and place in fridge for at least 30mins.

Once firm, use a cup upside down to make small rounds – I used a cup cake tray. Or else, you could make a big tart. Blind bake the shells for 10mins with weights in it, then 5 mins without in an oven at about 200 degrees. Cook til slightly brown. Let cool.

Custard

4 tablespoon custard powder

11/2 tablespoon sugar

100ml rice milk

500ml rice milk

vanilla essence/extract

nutmeg

I used Poppy brand custard powder – which is made in QLD and is very tasty indeed.

Put custard powder into 100ml of milk, whisk. Set aside.

Bring the 500ml of milk to the boil, with the sugar and vanilla to taste (I used ½ teaspoon).

Once boiling, remove milk from heat, and whisk in the 100ml of milk and powder.

Place back on heat and whisk til thick.

Allow to cool for a few mins, then place into pastry shells.

Refrigerate til cool and firm. Sprinkle on nutmeg.