Sunday 3 June 2012

Auntie Jean's Quiche - from Australian children's author Corinne Fenton

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Pastry Mix (packet variety)
3-4 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Milk

Any of these other ingredients can be added - as many or few as you like:

Crisp bacon pieces or sliced ham, corn, asparagus, chicken pieces,
mushrooms, spinach, tuna, chopped onion, chives or parsley, mashed pumpkin.
Grated cheese or sliced tomatoes on top.

Method:

Beat eggs and milk then add pastry mix and beat some more.
Pour into a greased quiche dish and add remainder of ingredients.
Bake in a moderate oven for 3/4 hour.

Quick and easy!

Sunday 27 May 2012

Clyde Park Vineyard & Bistro's Boeuf Bourguignon - get ready for cold winter's nights ahead!

Boeuf Bourguignon - courtesy of Clyde Park Bistro & Vineyard

This is probably one of the most famous of all French casserole dishes.  We have this on our menu all through winter serving it with a creamy mash and crunchy beans.

Serves: 6

1.5kg                           braising beef such as oyster blade
60g                              butter
250g                            kaiserfleisch or speck or bacon
1 tablespoon    flour
450ml                          red wine
300ml                          beef stock
4                                  eschallots, finely chopped
2 cloves                       garlic, finely chopped
1                                  beef stock cube
2 teaspoons                 tomato paste
1                                  bouquet garni
                                    Salt & pepper
12-14                                                      pickling onions
30g                              butter
150g                            button mushrooms or champignons

  1. Cut the beef into 3cm cubes
  2. In a large saucepan, heat 60g butter until very hot and fry the kaiserfleisch until crisp.  Remove and set aside
  3. Fry the meat until as brown as possible remembering that this will help develop a nice brown sauce in your casserole.
  4. Scatter the flour across the meat and with a wooden spoon toss the meat until the flour has slightly coloured and stuck to the bottom of the pan
  5. Add the wine, the stock, eschallots, garlic, beef stock cube, tomato paste, bouquet garni, salt & pepper.  Bring to the boil, add the lid, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer until tender, approximately 2¼ hours
  6. Three quarters of an hour before the end of the cooking time sauté the picking onions in 30g butter until they are brown.  Add to the casserole with the kaiserfleisch
  7. Wash the mushrooms, trim the tails.  Keep them whole if they are very tiny or cut into halves or quarters. Toss for 30 seconds in the butter and add to the dish for the last 10 minutes of cooking time
  8. At the end of the cooking time, discard the bouquet garni and check the seasoning.
  9. To serve, remove the meat with its garnish and boil down the sauce to concentrate the flavour and to thicken it a little.
  10. Spoon the sauce over the meat and sprinkle with parsley.

  11. Serve with a creamy mash, large baked potato or rice pilaf.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

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A Crumble for the Conditions - donated by Author Ananda Braxton-Smith

A Crumble for the Conditions
This has been one of my fave recipes over many years. The first of its best things is you don’t have to peel the fruit.
The second is you don’t have to be particular about measurements. It tastes good from quite tart right up to teeth-singingly sweet. As shown here it serves 6-8 people but you can make any amount by just adding some more fruit and crumble-stuff, and increasing the honey and juice a bit, just enough to keep the mixture tacky. I’ve made one big enough to feed 12 without even thinking! And I am no baker.
Also my kids loved it then and they love it now!
(and they are 18 and 22) 
Ingredients

Fruit mix
6 lge granny smith apples, roughly chopped
6 pears, not yet quite ripe, roughly chopped
½ cup orange juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon

Crumble
2 cups wholemeal flour
3 cups rolled oats
5 tbsp soft brown sugar
5 tbsp honey
4-5 tbsp vegetable oil

Method
Grease a baking dish.
Combine the fruit, juice, honey and cinnamon in a pan over a low heat.
Simmer fruit 15 minutes or until tender. Drain and reserve the liquid.
Return the liquid to heat and reduce over low heat until about 2 cups remain.
Pour the fruit and liquid into the baking dish.

To make the crumble, heat oil and honey a little --- until it’s easy to pour.
Mix dry ingredients in large bowl and mix with the oil/honey.
Spread the crumble over the fruit and bake whole lot in a moderate oven for 30-45 minutes.
When it’s golden brown on top it’s ready.

Serve with custard or ice-cream or crème fraiche or yoghourt --- or everything!

Author SUE LAWSON'S - Orange Poppy Seed Cake

Orange and Poppy Seed Cake
(Will keep refrigerated in airtight container for three days or freeze un-iced for 3 months.)

Prep. Time: 40 mins
Cooking Time: 55mins

2/3 cup milk, warm
¼ cup poppy seeds
1 large orange
250 g unsalted butter
1 ½ cups caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups self raising flour
Icing
250g cream cheese
¾ cup icing sugar, sifted
Shredded rind of 1 orange – optional

  1. Preheat oven to moderate 180°C. Grease and line base and sides of 23cm square cake tin. Combine milk and poppy seeds in jug and stand for 30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, place whole orange in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes.
  3. Place orange in bowl of iced water for 5 mins.
  4. Drain. Cut orange into eighths and remove seeds (do not peel).
  5. Place orange, butter and sugar in a food processor and process for about one minute, until almost smooth. Add eggs and process a further 30 seconds.
  6. Transfer mixture to large mixing bowl and add sifted flour and milk mixture. Stir until just combined.
  7. Spoon into prepared tin and smooth surface. Bake for 50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.
  8. Leave cake in tin 5 mins before turning onto wire rack.

To Make Icing:
Beat ingredients with electric beaters until creamy. When cake is cool, spread with icing and top with either shredded rind or poppy seeds.

Sri Lankan Eggplant Salad - from the travels of Jantine Eddelbuttel




I was recently travelling with friends in Sri Lanka. In Ella we stumbled across the Ella Spice Garden which was offering cooking classes at night to which we eagerly signed up. The Sri Lanka boys who ran it were 2 cousins - one who cooked and one who taught us. They were so enthusiastic about their food it was an absolute delight to learn from them. They ran the class in an outdoor sheltered kitchen which was drapped with fairy lights. After the class we were invited into their home to eat what we had cooked at their table.

Here is the Sri Lankan Eggplant Salad they taught us;

10x long, thin eggplants cut into very fine slices
1 and 1/2 teaspoons tumeric powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
Mix together in a bowl
Then deep fry the eggplant in oil - a batch at a time - for around 5 mins or until golden brown
Let the eggplant drain on paper towel

1 x red onion - finely sliced
10 x green chillies - finely sliced (use less for less bite)
1 x tomato finely chopped
Mix all togther with eggplant

Then add 1/2 tespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lime

Serve immediately and enjoy this delightfully refreshing dish!

Two AUTHENTIC Asian Recipe's - donated by Sokkhieng Butcher Randwick


Enjoy these two very authentic, butcher's own recipes. If you have a go, please share comments, photos, tips, etc!

Easy Chocolate Croissants - contribution from Melody Holliday, Walker Books Sales Coordinator and masterchef!

Makes 8

Ingredients:
2 Sheets ready made frozen puff pastry
Chocolate spread
60g shaved chocolate

Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
  2. Cut the sheets of puff pastry into 4 triangles.
  3. Spread a layer of chocolate spread in the middle of each triangle, leaving a thin boarder around the edge clear.
  4. Sprinkle the shaved chocolate on the chocolate spread.
  5. Starting at the point of the triangle roll the pastry sheet to the long edge, then twist both edges up and make a half circle shape.
  6. Brush with some milk or egg white to get a crispy golden brown croissant.
  7. Place the croissants on a sheet of baking paper and cook for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
  8. Allow to cool but best served warm

To add a twist, add in half a tsp of raspberry jam with the chocolate spread and you will have Chocolate raspberry croissants.

'A Culinary Hug' (Chicken and Corn Soup) Donated by Sue Whiting - Walker Books Publishing Manager and author.

Whenever someone in my family is feeling poorly, they know that without fail a steaming bowl of this soup will find its way to them as soon as humanly possible. It’s become a tradition of sorts. A mix of traditional Asian style chicken and corn soup with vegie soup, it’s a mother’s way of saying I love you and hope you feel better soon – a culinary hug, of sorts. It hits the spot on a wintery Sunday night too.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon finely chopped chilli
1 diced carrot
1 stick of diced celery
½ red capsicum, diced
6 button mushrooms, sliced
1 litre of chicken stock
6 chicken thighs
100 gm spaghetti (broken in half)
1 X 400 gm can creamed corn
1 tablespoon soya sauce
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 shallots, sliced
1 tablespoon fresh coriander, chopped
pepper and salt

Method:
1.      Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onion, ginger and chilli. Saute until aromatic.
2.      Add carrots, celery, mushroom and capsicum. Saute for a further couple of minutes.
3.      Add stock and chicken thighs. Bring to the boil and simmer until chicken is almost cooked through. (About 10 minutes.) Remove chicken and set aside.
4.      Add spaghetti and bring back to boil.
5.      Dice chicken into small cubes.
6.      Once the spaghetti is almost cooked through, add creamed corn, soya sauce, and return chicken to the pot.
7.      Bring back to the boil and add egg, whisking it briskly with a fork as it is poured in.
8.      Add coriander, shallots. Season with salt and pepper.
9.      Serve with toasted sourdough.


Honey Cake - sweetly donated by author, history and technology curator, David Demant!


Honey Cake

1 lb plain flour (450 g)
2 eggs
2 oz melted butter (57 g)
1 lb honey (warmed) (450 g)
½ teaspoon baking powder
6 oz sugar (170 g)
1 teaspoon heaped bicarbonate of soda dissolved in water
3 lb cocoa (1.4 kg)
½ oz mixed spices (14 g)
candid peel by choice
almonds for decoration on top (split)

Mix all the ingredients and add ½ cup of strong instant coffee (1 heaped teaspoon of coffee).
Bake No 4 for about 40 min.

Tom Yum Soap - donated by author and Zoo Man Damian Goodall

Tom Yum Soap  A famous authentic spicy Thai cuisine.
Damian Goodall: Author of “ The Snake Book, Slip Sliding Away”
1 Stalk Fresh Lemon Grass (Finely Sliced)
2 Cloves Fresh Garlic (Sliced)
1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger (Sliced)
4 Fresh small red Chillies (Depends on how spicy you like your food)
3 Kaffir Lime Leaves
1 Cup Fresh Coriander (Chopped)
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
2 Tablespoons Fish Oil
2 Chicken Stock Cubes
2 Tablespoon Tom Yum Paste
4 Mushrooms (Sliced)
2  Medium Tomatoes (Quartered)
1 Brown Onion
1 Chicken Breast
8 Peeled Large Green Prawns
Optional: Coconut Milk

Heat 1.5 Litres of water in a saucepan and add the chicken stock cubes. Stir until fully dissolved.
With a pestle & mortar grind half the amount of garlic cloves, ginger, chillies, coriander, lemon grass, lime juice and fish oil into a paste.
Slice the chicken breast into bite size pieces and cook slightly on a frypan.
Place sliced chicken, onion, and mushrooms into saucepan, followed by the freshly grinded paste. Add remaining non grinded garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chillies and lime leaves. A tablespoon or two of Tom Yum Paste can be added to enhance the flavour to your liking. Most Asian grocers sell Tom Yum paste in a jar. Although by adding the fresh ingredients, it really makes this dish rather than just using premade paste.
Do not bring soup to the boil only simmer for 10 minutes. Place green prawns in for 1 minute before serving.
Place quartered tomatoes into serving bowls. Serve Soup into bowl and garnish with remaining chopped coriander. Serves 2-4 People. Optional : You may also add in coconut milk to create a different fragrance.



Beattie's Book Blog - unofficial homepage of the New Zealand book community: Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

Beattie's Book Blog - unofficial homepage of the New Zealand book community: Australia's Biggest Morning Tea: Dear Friends of Walker Books, As you may already know, this Thursday we will be hosting a BIGGEST MORNING TEA at our Newtown offices. W...

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Welcome!

Walker Books Australia is committed to supporting community initiatives. Among our activities, each year we enthusiastically host a Biggest Morning Tea in support of the Cancer Council.

This year we've added The Cookbook That Cares. Our authors, illustrators, staff and friends of Walker Books have donated their favourite recipes. They include food ideas that are new and previously unpublished inventions, variations on traditional themes, and even better still, recipes that have been handed down through generations-enjoyed and treasured-but previously not shared outside the 'bosom of the family'. There are indulgences, and there are ideas for work nights.

For this we owe many thanks. To all of our staff recipe authors, thank you. To the authors, illustrators and friends of Walker Books who have been so generous with both time and 'trade secrets', and who've taken the time to photograph their kitchen creations, special gratitude is due.

This project has been embraced with gusto. The Cookbook simply could not fit all of the recipes that continue to flow in! So we’ve begun this blog – for all to enjoy all year round.

No book, or blog is ever created without the efforts of ‘behind the scenes’ creators, and we are thankful for the voluntary labour donated by the small, but very energetic project team from Walker Books for instigating, co-coordinating, editing and designing this ‘little kitchen treasure’.

The idea for this book is from Tiffiny Hemeon, our imaginative Marketing Manager, who tirelessly chased down every recipe for this book. Tiffiny dedicates this book to the memory of her father, Rod Hemeon, who was lost to cancer recently. Our editor, Jess Owen, assiduously checked the text over and made sure that there were no glitches and every recipe in this book was clear and easy to follow. And our kitchen obsessed designer, Donna Rawlins, loved making it as a tribute to her mother Aimee, who was lost to cancer in 1996.

But most of all, our special thanks goes to the very generous people at Oxford Printing who have donated their time, materials and labour completely free of charge, to make this book possible.

THANK YOU!
From the team at Walker Books