Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

This is a new recipe that I tried this week. It comes from The Best of Annabel Langbein, Great Food For Busy Lives. The muffins have an intense orange flavor and would be perfect for a breakfast or brunch. They’re unusual because the entire orange, including peel, is used in the recipe. I know – I had to read the recipe twice before I really believed I had to put the peel in as well as the flesh of the orange.

Orange Muffins

1 orange, preferably an organic one
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup orange juice
1 egg
120 g butter, melted (1 stick of butter)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).

Cut the whole, unpeeled orange into chunks and remove the pips. Puree in a blender. Add the raisins, orange juice, egg and melted butter and blitz briefly to combine.

In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar.

Add the liquid mixture and gently fold in until evenly combined. Don’t beat or overmix.

Spoon into greased muffin pans (I used muffin paper cases) and bake for 15 minutes or until risen and cooked through.

The recipe makes 12 small or 10 medium muffins.

Shelley’s notes:
I like cranberries, so I replaced the raisins and used cranberries instead
The cooking time will be less if you use a fan bake oven. I cooked mine for 12 minutes.

Verdict: Will I make these again? Heck, yeah. They were delicious!

Here’s the recipe for one of my favorite slices. It’s my father’s favorite too. It’s simple and easy to make and always goes well with a cup of tea or coffee.

250g butter (2.2 sticks/8.8 ounces)
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 T golden syrup
2 cups flour
1 cup coconut
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
chocolate icing (frosting) and extra coconut for decoration

Melt butter, sugar, cocoa and golden syrup in a large saucepan. Do not let the mixture boil. Let it cool then add flour, coconut, baking powder and salt.

Press into a greased and baking paper lined tin and bake at 180C (350F) for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool for another ten minutes. Ice (frost) with chocolate icing. Sprinkle with extra coconut. Cut into squares and store in an airtight tin.

Shelley’s notes:
1. This recipe comes from Seasons, a year of fabulous food by Annabelle White
2. I use the normal bake setting rather than fan bake. If you use fan bake reduce the cooking time.
3. I like to add chopped cranberries or walnut pieces to the mix for a variation. (You’ve probably noticed by now that I like cranberries and add dried cranberries to everything!)

Do you have any favorite slices you like to eat/bake?

I used to make these biscuits (that would be cookies to those of you in the US) when I was a teenager and had a yearning to bake some last weekend. They’re easy to make and children like rolling out the dough ready for baking. I think they’re called Easter Biscuits because of the spices and currants, which also go into Hot Cross Buns.

Here’s the recipe:

225 g (8oz) Flour
125 g (4oz) Butter (softened)
125 g (4oz) Sugar
50 g (2oz) Currants
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
Grated rind of 1/2 Lemon
1 Egg

Rub butter into sifted flour and baking powder. Add remainder of ingredients. Mix to a stiff dough with beaten egg. Roll out thin, cut into large rounds with a fluted cutter. Bake 20 minutes at 180 C (350F)

Shelley’s notes:

I chucked the ingredients into my Kitchen whizz in the order specified above. It was super quick and easy.
I didn’t have currants so I used finely chopped dried cranberries.
I don’t have a cutter. I used a small bowl as my cutter.
I also added a little plain lemon icing, piping the squiggles on top of the biscuits.
My oven seems to cook quickly and I only cooked my biscuits for 15 minutes.

This is a new recipe I tried recently. It’s both quick and easy to make and the final result was delicious.

2 cups of chickpeas (cooked)
4 tablespoons of Olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely diced
2 sticks celery, finely sliced
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 zuchinni, diced
3 x cans Italian tomatoes, chopped
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup water
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil and add onion, carrots, celery, rosemary, garlic and zuchinni. Fry gently without browning for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft.

Add the cooked chickpeas, tomatoes and tomato paste plus the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until soup is thick and creamy. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on top of soup. Serves 4 – 6 people

Note: I halved the quantities of most of the vegetables and used one can of chickpeas and one can of tomatoes. I also grated a little parmesan cheese on top.

Serve with Beer Bread

Source: Cuisine Magazine, New Zealand

With all the great summer produce around, I love making this vegetable stew. It’s great for vegetarians –serve it with rice or couscous — and meat lovers enjoy this dish too. This recipe takes a little time but the final result is very tasty.

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant cut into chunky pieces
3 medium courgettes, thickly sliced (that’s zuchinni in the US)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 red capsicums
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 red onions, sliced
1/2 cup red wine
4 large ripe outdoor tomatoes, chopped (or 400g can chopped tomatoes)
1 tablespoon oregano
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup torn basil leaves

METHOD 1:Brush eggplant and courgettes with oil and grill or barbecue until tender. Cook capsicum on barbecue or grill until skin blisters and blackens. Allow to cool slightly and then rub off skin, remove seeds and cut into strips. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and gently cook garlic and onion until tender. Add the eggplant, peppers and zucchini to the pan along with the remaining olive oil, red wine, tomatoesm oregano and olives. Season with sea salt and cover and cook until vegetables are tender.
Sprinkle with torn basil leaves and freshly ground black pepper.

METHOD 2: The above is the actual recipe from the Foodlovers.co.nz site. I use a slightly different method. I chop the eggplant, courgettes, capsicum, and onion into bite sized pieces and place on an oven tray. I add cloves of garlic and toss all the vegetables in oil, black pepper and sea salt. I cook for about half an hour in a medium oven. Then I toss the lot in a pot with a can of tomatoes, red wine and oregano and cook for around ten minutes until the tomatoes have reduced and the vegetables are tender. Serve with rice or couscous and garnish with torn basil leaves.

I like the second method because it’s easier and everything is cooked together, but it’s a lot tastier than when I used to cook everything in a pot.

I saw this recipe for a Pinata Birthday cake on the Australian version of Better Homes and Gardens. It’s for a children’s birthday cake, but it was also perfect for my sweet-tooth father. I was a bit short of time and didn’t make the cake. I purchased a sponge cake and filled it with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Before I did this, I cut a hole in the middle of the sponges to create a ring cake.

If I were making the cake from scratch I’d use a ring tin and make a chocolate, banana or carrot cake.

For a child’s birthday cake, purchase some of their favorite candy and fill the hole in the middle of your cake with these. You could ice the cake first or not–depending upon your child’s likes or dislikes.

My father likes dried fruit so I filled the cake centre with dried slices of apple, papaya, crystalized ginger, dried strawberries and banana.

For the next step you need a bowl that will fit over comfortably over the cake. Line the bowl with tin foil. Melt some chocolate–I used both dark and milk chocolate. The quantity you require will depend on the size of your bowl. Brush the chocolate over the inside of the bowl. Once complete, place in fridge to harden for five minutes. Add a second layer of chocolate to the inside of the bowl and chill again. Once the chocolate is set, remove the chocolate shell from the bowl and place over the top of the cake. Peel off the tin foil to reveal the chocolate shell. Decorate the top with icing writing or candy. I used fruit jubes.

To serve: arm the birthday person with a wooden spoon and get them to bash/hit the chocolate shell to reveal the treasure cake beneath.

My father didn’t really understand what to do, but you can see the small hole he’s made in the chocolate cover.

Enjoy!

Here’s a very easy recipe for bread. It’s the sort of recipe you can whip up very quickly when you’re short of bread or you need some bread to go with a pot of soup. The recipe is from Jo Seagar’s Easy-Peasy summer entertaining recipe book.

Beer Bread

3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (I use about half of this)
1 can beer (400ml or .845 pints) – If your can is smaller, make up the amount with water. Don’t use low-alcohol beer
1 handful of grated cheese (about 1/3 of a cup)

Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F). Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and beer in a large bowl and combine well. Tip into a well-greased loaf tin or two smaller tins. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the dough. Bake the large loaf for 50 – 60 minutes. (That’s what the recipe suggests. With my oven I find around 30 – 40 minutes works so you might have to experiment with cooking times) Bake the smaller loafs for a shorter time – around 30 minutes depending on your oven. Tip out and cool on a wire rack before slicing. This bread also makes good toast.

During our last holiday one of the special activities on board the cruise ship was making beauty products using items from the pantry.

Below is one of the recipes:

Sweet Brown Sugar Scrub

1 part milk
4 parts brown sugar

Mix the sugar and milk together.

Apply to hands, scrub and rinse. This scrub makes the skin soft yet avoids the use of artificial ingredients. You can also use on elbows, feet, knees and other rough skin. Replace the milk with cream to make an extra silky, rich scrub.

This is a recipe from my childhood. It was a favorite – both to eat and to make.

Rice Bubble Goodies

1 stick butter (4 oz)
1 cup sugar
8 oz chopped dates
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg beaten
1 cup chopped nuts – I like walnuts
2 cups Rice Krispies
coconut

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the sugar, dates, vanilla and the beaten egg. Stir together and cook on the stovetop for a few minutes until you have a thick golden mixture and the dates are soft. Remove from the heat and cool. Once mixture is cool add the nuts and the Rice Krispies. Form into small bite-sized balls and roll in coconut.

Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

Earlier today I was browsing the cook books in Borders while waiting for Mr. Munro. This recipe for a vegetarian Nicoise-type salad caught my eye and I decided I’d make my version for dinner.

Ingredients:

1 cup cous cous
1 cup boiling water
knob of butter or a little olive oil
tomatoes
sliced green beans
black olives
parsley
2 hard boiled eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Add boiling water and butter or olive oil to the cous cous and combine with a fork until the the cous cous has soaked up the water and is fluffy. Cook the green beans and drain. Chop the tomatoes finely. Chop the parsley. Combine these ingredients with the cous cous and arrange the quartered eggs on top. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with your favorite vinegarette dressing.

Verdict: Very yummy. I’d definitely make this salad again.