Feta and Paprika Cheese Straws

It is fair to say, I love a good dip. Cheese ball, hummus, salsa, pesto, or just the well-known kiwi onion dip. Yip, dip rocks! Needless to say I’m often on the lookout for things to dip in dip.

From memory, they were big in New Zealand in the seventies, being cheap and relatively easy to make. I came across this recipe in the one of the midweek papers a couple of weeks ago. To be honest, at the time, I was more caught drooling over the plum sauce recipe than the straws but since I am very much plum-less…I had to make do.

A word of warning – these are very addictive! Pair them with some homemade plum sauce and you’ll have yourself a rather attractive looking snack! They’re best eaten warm from the oven, but if you need to make them ahead, leave them to crisp up in a cool oven before removing to an air-tight container – they’re less likely to soften.

Feta and Paprika Cheese Straws

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon dried mustard
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 60 grams butter, diced
• 1/2 a cup grated cheese
• 1/2 a cup feta cheese, crumbled

To make the cheese straws, preheat your oven to approx 190 degrees. Grease an oven tray. Sift the flour and paprika into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. I found I had to add a little more water to the mix at this stage as it seemed a little dry! Stir in both the grated cheese and the crumbled feta cheese.

Next, lightly beat the egg and add to the mixture. Stir until a dough is formed and then roll out on a floured surface. You want to make sure the dough is roughly 5mm thick before slicing into strips. I  found a pizza cutter (if you have one!) was ideal for this part.

Transfer the strips onto a cooked tray lined with paper. Lightly brush with a bit of milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds. Bake for around 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack and store in an air tight container.

This recipe makes approximately 16 straws.

Banana Muffins

Muffins, muffins, what to write about muffins?

I personally think muffins are completely underrated. Or should I say, homemade muffins are completely underrated. My opinion of muffins is often tainted by the cafe or supermarket type – often too dry, too dense, too sweet…….I could go on. They really make you forget how incredibly moist and delicious a fresh, baked-from-scratch muffin can be.

A muffin recipe would have to be one of the easiest recipes to follow. So easy and often with very few ingredients, you can have these in the oven in 10 minutes flat. The greatest thing about this recipe is that the *best* banana aroma fills your house as they bake…

Banana Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Spray 12 cup muffin tray with cooking spray.
Sift flour into a bowl then add sugar, oil and milk. Mix well but do not beat. Add mashed bananas and fold through mixture. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden.

Rolled Oat and Sultana Square

Well, this *thing* has many names in my family but it sits in Mum’s recipe book under “Crunch”….why? I do not know. For the benefit of the reader I have renamed this *thing* to ‘Rolled Oat and Sultana Square’. This is literally an Anzac Biscuit in a slice. Yum!

This thing has been around. It was the slice that filled our school lunchboxes for many years and the slice that traveled throughout New Zealand as we went to our regular camping spots as kids, baking in the heat of the caravan during summer or taken to the beach only to end up a little bit crunchier… This slice even turned up to our netball and hockey games. A lot of my blog posts stir up memories of years past but if I was to really remember one baked item from my childhood, it would be this one.

This recipe is very tasty, easy to cook and perfect for the school (or errr, work?) lunch box!

Rolled Oat and Sultana Square

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup coconut
• ¾  cup raisins
• 150 g butter
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Put the rolled oats, flour, sugar, coconut, and raisins into a large bowl. Melt the butter and golden syrup together. Add the baking soda and stir.

Pour into the try ingredients and mix until well combined. This will create quite a moist mixture. Press into a sponge roll tin. Bake at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Original Caramel Slice

Nothing beats a good caramel slice! Or so I’m told… As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, there are many establishments in Wellington that really excel in this area. Astoria, Sweet’s Mother’s Kitchen…to name a few.

I’ve blogged a few times before with a couple of variations to the caramel slice:

Caramel Crunchy Slice & Baked Caramel and Chocolate Slice.

Both delicious in their own right but by no means, the original caramel slice. A short but oh so very sweet post to mark the end of January! Enjoy.

Caramel Slice

• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 100g butter

For the filling:

• 30g butter
• 2 Tbsp golden syrup
• 400g can sweetened condensed milk

For the icing:

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 3 Tbsp cocoa
• 30g butter

Preheat oven to 180°C. Put aluminium foil in a shallow dish. To make base: Sift flours into a bowl, add coconut. Combine brown sugar and butterin a pan until sugar has dissolved. Add mixture to the flours and stir. Press into tin with back of spoon, bake for 10 mins or until brown.

Combine butter, golden syrup and condensed milk in a saucepan. Stir for 10 mins until mixture boils and browns (watch it doesn’t burn on bottom). Pour over base and bake for 20 minutes. Although the original recipe didn’t say so, once the caramel is out of the oven place it in the fridge for 10-20 minutes. This will make the caramel solidify a little and makes icing it a little easier.

For the icing, combine the icing sugar, cocoa and melted butter in a bowl, stir until well combined. Spread over caramel filling.This slice is ridiculously more-ish so freeze it and take one piece out at a time or take it sttttrrrrraight outta the house! So good!

Mum’s Chocolate Birthday Cake

This is my Mum’s chocolate birthday cake recipe. I seemed to have copied a large number of my Mum’s recipes since I left home all those years ago. It must be reflective of the kind of cook she is. Of course I am a little bias…

Mum’s Chocolate Cake

For the cake:

• 125 grams of butter
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 2 tablespoons of golden syrup
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of trim milk
• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teapsoon of vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 a cup of trim milk

For the icing:

• 100 grams of butter
• 1/4 a teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons of hot water
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa

Cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the egg and beat well until combined. Beat in the 1 cup of milk. Sift in the dry ingredients and fold in. Add vanilla. Dissolve the baking soda into the milk and add to the cake batter. Mix extremely well.

Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes at about 180 degrees.

To make the chocolate butter icing, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and gradually beat in the icing sugar and cocoa until smooth. Add sufficient water to give a spreading consistency. Spread over cake and decorate if desired.

Do you like Frittata?

If you do, try this easy Spinach and Leek Baked Frittata.

A frittata is mostly like an omelette except without the fuss of that folding over thingee that you do with omelets. The thingee that in 25 years….I haven’t quite mastered…which is kind of why I prefer frittata. I guess a frittata is almost a cross between a quiche (a family staple I grew up on!) and an omelette. You sort of get the best of both worlds, except healthier. Bonus.

It’s flat and usually thicker than an omelette, with a lot more stuff in it. Making a frittata is a good way to use up those odds and ends of vegetables and cheese that might otherwise get thrown away. Spinach? Leek? Courgette? Mushrooms? Feta? You name it..a frittata can be whatever you want it to be!

I’ve always been a big fan of eggs in all their forms, scrambled, boiled (with soldiers of course) and especially poached. In fact I make an egg-related dish pretty much once a week. It is such a fast weeknight meal and you can usually make it with ingredients that you already have in the fridge! Total money saver right there.

The following recipe is very basic but totally reliable. It is wonderfully delicious AND super simple. Double win.

Spinach and Leek Baked Frittata

You can serve this frittata warm or cold with roasted tomatoes or a leafy salad. It’s also a great finger food, cut into small squares.

• 250 grams baby spinach leaves
• 1 whole leek, thinly sliced
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 100 ml skim milk
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray a 20cm square non-stick cake tin with oil. Line base with baking paper. Cook spinach in boiling water for 30 seconds, or until just wilted. Drain and squeeze out any excess water. Allow to cool, then roughly chop.

Cook leek for 3 minutes in same cooking water. Drain and allow to dry. Scatter spinach and leek into bottom of tin.

Beat eggs with cornflour and milk. Season well with salt and pepper. Pour this mixture over vegetables, pressing down with back of a fork. Scatter over cheese and bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out. Serve warm, cut into wedges with a green salad. Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Healthy Beef and Lentil Lasagna

Homemade Lasagna is just so tasty. Beef and Lentil Lasagna even more so. The combination of beef mince and lentils provides a nutritious, cheap and healthy substitute for the usual beef mince filling. Lentils are high in protein but low in fat and are also one of the best vegetable sources of iron.

Pasta would have to be in my top five favourite meals. It is filling, super tasty and damn, can you experiment with it or what! I grew up on Lasagne, Alison Holst’s popular Lazy Lasagna to be exact (one of the easiest recipes ever – definitely try it if you haven’t already!).

This recipe actually contains half the fat and calories of regular lasagne but still tastes amazing. I often make this dish because it freezes so well and if you are short of time, you can also make in advance and let the flavours develop a bit more.

Although you can use dried pasta, from experience fresh pasta sheets work much better!

Beef and Lentil Lasagne

 

• 500 grams minced beef
• 550 gram tomato-based pasta sauce
• 400 gram can of crushed tomatoes, with herbs
• 220 gram can of brown lentils
• 1 1/2 cups of trim milk
• 1 tbsp of cornflour
• 1 tbsp of mustard
• 4 individual fresh lasagne sheets
• 1/2 a cup of grated parmesan cheese

 

Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan-forced. Lightly spray a 24cm x 20cm (2L/8-cup capacity) ovenproof dish with oil.

 

Lightly spray a large non-stick frying pan with oil and heat over high heat. Add mince and cook, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon, for 3–5 minutes or until browned. Add the pasta sauce and tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until thickened. Stir in lentils.

 

Meanwhile, blend ¼ cup (60ml) of the milk with cornflour in a bowl. Bring remaining milk to the boil in a small saucepan. Stir in cornflour mixture. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes until sauce boils and thickens. Add mustard. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

 

Place 1 lasagne sheet in the base of the prepared dish and trim to fit. Top with one-third of the beef mixture. Repeat layering with remaining lasagne sheets and beef mixture, finishing with a lasagne sheet. Spread the white sauce over the lasagne and sprinkle with parmesan.

 

Bake for 30–35 minutes or until pasta is tender and top is golden. This healthy beef and lentil lasagna is great on a cold winter night, served piping hot from the oven alongside a crisp green salad and crusty bread. I highly recommend!