Traditional Spaghetti Carbonara

Spaghetti Carbonara

- The specialty of Rome








Ingredients:

3 large egg yolks
40 g pecorino romano cheese, plus extra to serve
150 g piece of pancetta and/or guanciale
200 g dried spaghetti
1 clove of garlic
extra virgin olive oil


Method:

Put the egg yolks into a bowl, finely grate in the pecorino, season with pepper, mix well with a fork and put aside.

Reasonably finely slice the pancetta and/or guanciale.

Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.

Add some olive oil to a pan and add peeled clove of garlic that you have just crushed with the palm of your hand and saute for a minute to flavour the oil. Then remove garlic.

Add the pancetta and/or guanciale and fry till crisp.

Drain and add the spaghetti to the pan.

Toss well over the heat so it soaks up most of the water, then remove the pan from heat.

Add a splash of the pasta cooking water and toss well, season with lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Pour in egg mixture and toss well, adding more cooking water if necessary to make it nice and glossy.

Serve with extra grated Pecorino cheese.

Delicious!!

Winter South of The Equator

Although our Winters south of the equator might seem like a bit of a joke to those of you living north of the equator.. we still feel the cold!!

Upcoming.. I'll be posting a few delicious winter recipes in the next week or two.. stay tuned😊

Gluten-Free Cheese Pogácsa (Hun: Sajtos Pogácsa)

Yesterday I made over 200 gluten-free cheese pogácsa for my Aunty's 80th Birthday party. They were soooo delicious... you couldn't tell the difference!! In fact, in my humble opinion, they were far superior in flavour and texture to the regular wheat flour one's!

The closest I have come to describing what a pogácsa is... is a savoury scone that's usually nibbled with a drink. They are hugely popular in a lot of Baltic countries but particularly in Hungary.




Ingredients

200ml Milk (substitute lactose-free or Goat's milk if desired)
40ml white vinegar

400g Edith's Amazing Gluten-Free Flour Mix
100g cold butter cut into small cubes
7g / 1 packet dry active yeast
2tsp bicarbonate of soda (bicarb)
1 tsp salt

150g finely grated tasty cheese such as cheddar (substitute lactose-free cheese if desired)

1 egg - for glazing
caraway seeds to sprinkle on top


Method

- Pour vinegar into milk to sour it and set aside.

- In a food processor add gluten-free flour, cold butter, yeast, bicarb & salt - pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

- Tip into a large bowl, add cheese and mix through the flour.

- Make a well in the centre and add the milk/vinegar mixture.

- Work this mixture into a soft, but not sticky dough.

- Roll out to approx 1.5cm.

- Using a small cookie cutter or glass (approx 4 or 5cm wide) cut into biscuits.

- Roll offcuts back into a ball and press or roll out again to make more pogácsa until all the dough has been used.

- Lay these on a lined ungreased cookie tray.

- Brush with beaten egg.

- Sprinkle over some caraway seeds.

Bake in a 180C preheated oven for approx 20 minutes.

Cool on a wire cake rack.


And most of all.... enjoy!!

Edith's Amazing Gluten-Free Flour Mix

This is an all-purpose flour blend that is particularly suited to baked goods, but also makes a lovely roux (Hun: rántás) for thickening gravies, sauces etc. It can be used for pretty much any recipe that requires gluten-free flour.

For yeast goods I add Xanthan gum in order to mimic the "stretchiness" that gluten contributes to breadmaking in order to give your bread structure.

I won't get into giving a lesson on the pro's and con's of Xanthan gum, all I will say is... it's a man made gum used in lots of manufactured food products to give a variety of textural outcomes such as structure and lightness to breads etc, good "mouthfeel" to ice-cream, thickening of salad dressings and the list goes on.

If you don't like the idea of using it there is a more natural alternative called 'guar gum'.  They don't provide the same outcome but it is pretty similar.

Edith's Amazing Gluten-Free Flour Mix

This recipe makes 540g.

110g  fine rice flour

125g  glutinous rice flour

110g  tapioca flour

160g  potato starch

35g    cornflour (maize flour - from corn)

For yeast baking I add: 2tsp of Xanthan Gum to the above quantity of flour.

A Few Notes...

Potato Starch

It is important to use potato starch which is a pure white powder - this adds lightness and flavour to your baked goods. 

If it is a yellowish colour then it is probably potato flour which is not suitable for this recipe.

It can be very confusing as, unfortunately, even the manufacturers of potato starch sometimes call it "potato flour". 

Cornflour

Please be aware that for some strange reason, here in Australia cornflour can actually be made from wheat!! Always make sure that what you are buying is made from maize (corn) as wheat is obviously not gluten-free!!

Happy Gluten-Free Cooking and Baking!

Soy Naan Breads

Asian cultures have known of the benefits of incorporating soy products into their diets for thousands of years.


These Naan breads are really quick to make and are low in fat and calories as well!

Note: Please make sure you buy organic, non-gmo soy flour. Otherwise you may be compromising your health.

  

My Recipe For Soy Naan Breads

2 cups strong bakers flour (or wholewheat flour)
I like to use Laucke's 'Wallaby' Flour from South Australia
1 cup soy flour
1 tsp dry yeast (or 2 tsp fresh yeast)
1/4 tsp sugar
1 cup luke warm water
Sea salt to taste
1 tsp oil (preferably cold pressed)

Here's How:

Combine sugar, yeast and luke warm water in a jug. Cover and keep aside for 10 minutes or till the yeast bubbles.

Combine the flour, soya flour, salt and yeast mixture in another bowl.

Work into a smooth pliable dough. Depending on your flour, if your dough is too dry you may need to add a little more water.

Knead on a lightly floured board for a few minutes until you develop a nice pliable soft dough. 

Add the oil and work it through the dough. Knead for a few more minutes.

Cover the dough with some cling wrap or a wet muslin cloth and allow it to prove till it doubles in size.

Take small knobs of the dough (about the size of golf ball), roll them out as thin as you can into oblong shapes on a lightly floured board.

My note: I roll them out first, then stretch them by hand to make them really thin.

They should be around 12cm or so. No need to make them perfect as they are meant to be a little 'rustic'.

Heat a non-stick tava (griddle), add about 1/2tsp oil and cook the naan on one side till it puffs and turns golden brown underneath.

Another little note: If you prefer lower fat, then cook them without the oil.

Turn it over and cook it on the other side till it puffs up and browns as well.

Remove from pan and continue with the rest of the dough.

If you only want a few naan breads, you can put the rest of the dough in the fridge and use it over the next few days to make fresh naan breads.

Enjoy these with your favourite curries or use as wraps for sandwich fillings etc.

My Veggie Patch

My Veggie Patch

I used to have a small veggie patch when the children were little and we lived in the hills in South Australia.

Here in Queensland gardening is a whole new ball game, as they say.

As we really only have 2 seasons.. Wet & Dry.. I'm still working out when to plant what!

The one thing I know for sure is... as much as I love home grown tomatoes, I will not be growing them in Summer! The fruit-fly just can't keep away from them! It's such a shame, but I'll just have to come up with another way of growing them... perhaps after the heat of summer?

Oh well, fortunately there are loads of other vegetables that can be grown most of the year round.

I live in a sub-tropics so we can grow a lot of our vegetables all year round.  However, it is advisable not to sow seeds directly into the garden beds in winter as they need warmth to germinate. Sowing seeds in seedling trays and keeping them covered indoors seems to be working ok though.

Check out the progression of my veggie patch, starting May 2012...
 
May 2012
It was the end of Autumn here in Queensland.

July 2012
Middle of Winter.

PS. It's the 30th of August 2014 already!! Time flies when you're having fun... I'll be updating my garden pics later today... I didn't realise it's been 2 whole years since I last uploaded some new pics of the garden.

My veggie patch has shrunk a little as we put up a shed in the back corner of the garden.
Edith xo

Aranka's Kupus Kifle

Aranka & Magdi in Titel

Kupus Kifle (Serb/Croat) literally means "cabbage rolls". But it is not referring to the use of cabbage, it's referring to the "leafiness" of the pastry. They are more like 'croissants'.

This recipe is from my beautiful cousin Aranka from Titel.

Aranka's recipe is written in Serbo/Croation.

The Recipe for Kupus Kifle:

1/2 liter milk
1 sachet yeast (approx. 7g)
2 tblsp sugar
2 tblsp salt

Mix yeast with warm milk & sugar.
When the yeast bubbles add 1 small coffee cup vegetable oil.

Add salt and mix.

Add 1 kg plain flour.

Knead and divide into 4 pieces.
Rest for 15 minutes.

Mix 250g margarine/butter with 4 egg yolks and 2 tsp salt.

Roll out each piece of pastry and smear the butter/egg yolk filling over it.

Then roll into a cylinder.

Cut in a zig-zag shape.

Brush with egg wash and bake in hot oven.

Chicken Congee

A few weeks ago we had lunch with the family at the Haoke Chinese Seafood Restaurant, who specialise in Yum Cha. I must say, the food was fresh, carefully prepared and everything we had was delicious.

Among the many delicious dishes, we ordered a bowl of Congee. For some reason, I had never had congee before. It was such a deliciously delicate, mild, yet comforting thick soupy dish. I decided to make my own at home yesterday.

Finding a recipe on the internet was no problem at all, but they all varied in the type of rice to use and the proportion of liquid to rice. So, of course, being my first time at it, I added way too much rice! Mine turned out to be a very thick porridge rather than a soup. I had 6 liters of water to 5 cups of rice. Apparently some people like it that way. It was pretty delicious, but I'd prefer it to more soupy. So next time these are the proportions I'll use.

PS. I noticed a lot of recipes only use chicken and rice. But, as the restaurant added a few vegetables I actually prefer it that way as it makes a more wholesome meal.

Chicken Congee

4 liters water
1 cup jasmine rice
1 kg chicken drumsticks
2 carrots, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp ginger (heaped)
salt & pepper to season




Toppings:

finely shredded spring onion (green only)
coriander leaves
crispy fried shallots
crispy fried garlic
sesame oil
light soy sauce

Put all of the ingredients in a large soup pot and cook for about 2 hours, or until the chicken is tender and the rice has completely broken down.

Or, like me, put all of the ingredients into your trusty pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes from boiling point.

When the chicken congee is cooked. Remove the chicken legs from the congee. With 2 forks, de-bone them, remove any skin, shred into bite size pieces and return to the pot. Stir the chicken through the congee and you're done.

To Serve Your Chicken Congee

Ladle the chicken congee into deep bowls add some or all of the toppings, and be sure to add a small drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce as it makes all the difference.

Bon Apetit xoxo








*  Image by Keerati, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Merry Christmas Everyone

Wherever in the world you are, I wish you all a wonderful, peaceful and joyous time with your loved ones this Christmas. xoxo

Dió és Csokoládés Kuglóf - Walnut & Chocolate Cake

Recipe - Written in Hungarian 
Click on image to enlarge

Dió és Csokoládés Kuglóf - Walnut & Chocolate Cake Recipe

Beat 4 egg yolks with 1 cup sugar.

Slowly drizzle in 1 cup of vegetable oil.

Beat the 4 egg whites to stiff peaks in a separate bowl.

To the egg yolk mixture add: 

2 cups self raising flour - add 1tsp baking powder
1 cup milk 1 cup grated walnuts
1/2 cup grated chocolate

Lastly, gently fold the stiffly beaten egg whites into the cake mixture.

Pour into a greased, fluted ring mould.

Bake in a moderate oven until a metal skewer comes out clean.




The above Kuglóf (Cake) recipes are usually baked in this type of ring mould tin.

If you don't have one, just click on the image and buy one now.