Delish Butterscotch Sauce

For two days I've had a craving for pancakes with banana and butterscotch sauce. Yesterday I went to one of my favourite breakfast haunts for a fix only to be super disappointed to find out that the pancakes du jour was blueberry. I was shattered. I hate berries! So today I made my own. I made up a batch of buttermilk pancakes. I plated up by layering a pancake with sliced banana and a drizzle of sauce three times, followed by a scoop of cookies and cream ice cream and more sauce! Here's the recipe for the butterscotch sauce. Pure decadence!


200g butter
1/2 C of firmly packed brown sugar
120mL Cream
Pinch of salt
1 Tea Sp of Vanilla paste

1 - Melt butter in a pan
2 - Add sugar, cream, salt and vanilla.
3 - Bring to a boil over a low to medium heat
4 - Let the mixture bubble away for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a whisk.

Pork and Mushroom Dumplings

Take 500g lean pork mince, add a splash of dark mushroom soy, a table spoon of crushed garlic and 150g swiss brown mushrooms (chopped in a food processor) and mix together in a bowl.

Take a packet of won ton wrappers, one by one wet the edge and take a small ball of the meat and mushie mixture and place in the centre. Fold in half and pinch the edges together to seal. Push them down on the bench to get a flat bottom. Continue until all wrappers have been filled.

Spray a fry pan with oil and put in a splash of water. Put the dumplings in the pan and gently place a saucepan lid and cook on a medium heat until the dumplings have steamed long enough to cook the meat inside thoroughly. Remove the lid, turn up the heat a little to brown the bottoms.

To make the dipping sauce, take a small bowl, add equal quantities of black Chinese vinegar and soy sauce, drizzle in a little bit of chili oil. 

Enjoy!

Quinoa and Tarragon Mushroom Salad

Quinoa is pretty underrated. I love the shit! It can breakfast or lunch and is packed full of protein and is a good source vitamin E, folate, magnesium, phosphorus and  manganese. I created this bad-boy for dinner tonight as I wasn't in the mood for meat. So go forth my friends and have a crack at this tasty quiona salad!

Take about 4 button mushrooms and quarter them and throw them in a pot with with a small knob of butter and a sprinkle of tarragon (fresh or dry), and cook on a low heat on the stove. When cooked, allow to cool.

Take 1/2 a cup of quiona, and cook according the the directions. When the quinoa is cooked, rinse under cold water. Let the excess water drain off and then add it to a large bowl.

Take 1 medium sized red pepper and half a red onion and finely dice both and throw into the bowl. Dice up about 8 baby bocconcini balls and chuck them into the mix too.

Take a rather large handful or two of baby spinach leaves  and chop into smaller, happy fork-sized pieces.

Drizzle over some olive oil and balsamic glaze, toss around until all ingredients are well mixed.

Enjoy!

Devine Cheesy Mushrooms on Toast

Take about 15-20 button mushrooms and slice. Melt some salted butter in a fry pan with olive oil, add 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic and toss in the mushies. Cook on a low-med heat until the mushies are soft and glossy.

Throw in around 1000g of thinly sliced Havarti cheese and wait for it to melt. Once melted sprinkle over a small hanfdul of finely grated Parmesan. Once the cheeses have melted, give the while lot a nice toss/stir. 

Take some dry toast (sourdough would work really well here & you don't beed it buttered as enough butter should have soaked into the mushies) and place some wilted spinach on top. Scoop the mushies on to the spinach topped toast, drizzle with balsamic glaze and black truffle oil garnish with a fancy side cut wedge of lemon  and now it's time to indulge!

Delicious Beef Ragu

Winter has begun to set in. I was cold and hungry so I created this beauty! It's moments like these that I wished I had a Le Creuset casserole dish - But I don't so my large pot and corningware casserole dish inherited from my Gannie had to suffice!

I took 500g of chuck steak, cut it into 5 or so smaller chunks and removed most of the yukky thick bits of fat. I heated some Olive oil  and butter  in the large pot and browned off the meat. Once sealed, I put aside in a bowl to rest. In the same pan, I fried off 100g of short cut bacon that had been cut into strips. Lardons of pancetta would work even better than bacon for this. Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees C.

I diced 1 brown onion, 2 celery sticks, 1 large carrot and 3 cloves of fresh, crushed garlic and threw them into the pot. I cooked these down on a  med-hi heat until they had softened. 

I then added 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, 50g of tomato paste and just over a cup of red wine - I like red wine so the more the better for this recipe! Still over the med-hi heat I stirred and combined all of these ingredients and finally added 4 bay leaves and around 8 quartered button mushrooms into the mix.

I transferred this bubbling, maroon concoction into the casserole dish and I submerged the meat under the sauce, popped the lid on and chucked it into the oven and cranked up the heat to 200 degrees C.

I baked it for roughly one and a half hours - possibly 2 (I can't remember) I pulled it out of the oven and removed the chunks of meat. One at a time, I shredded the chunks of meat with 2 forks and added it back into the red sauce. Before serving, I threw in and wilted 2 modest handfuls of baby spinach and stirred it through.

I served it with curly fettuccine but I think any long wide pasta would work well with this sauce and finely grated Parmesan cheese. 

It was everything I was hoping it was going to be - absolutely delicious, warm and comforting. I even enjoyed some left over sauce on toast for breakfast this morning :)

If you're in need of some warming, comfort food that is relatively healthy, this one's for you!

Tagliatelle all'amatriciana Vs. Puttanesca Mash Up... Winning!

So, I was sitting at home all on my lonesome tonight, on what is Hump Day for most, but Saturday for me. I was picking my brain for an idea of what to cook for dinner. I did a quick ring around to the girls to invite them over for a feed, but all declined for various reasons. Pft! Their loss! Time to find some new friends methinks!

Any who, back to the story. I decided I was going to make pasta with some sort of red, spicy sauce. I drove to the supermarket and the idea hit me. Tagliatelle all'amatriciana Vs. Puttanesca Mash Up! Awesome!

I diced 1/2 a brown onion, 2 slices of short cut bacon cut in 1/2 length ways, and then cut into thin strips and around 100g of a stick of pepperoni sliced into 5mm lardons. I threw all of these into a fry pan with heated olive oil along with 2 tea spoons of crushed garlic on a Med-High heat.

After a few minutes when the onions had turned transparent, and the bacon had slightly browned, I chucked in 2 table spoons of tomato paste and cooked that for a few minutes until it had dried out quite a lot.

While that was all going on, I diced a medium sized fresh tomato and a medium sized field mushroom and slid those babies into the pan with all of the other crap then added a splash of water. I chopped up around 12 kalamata olives 3 large pieces of roasted red peppers from the Deli and popped them into the mix too. I gave it a bit of a stir, poured in a tad more water and around 1/3 of a cup of hot chili sauce.

I put the sauce on a smaller burner and let it simmer with a handful or 2 of baby spinach whilst the tagliatelle cooked.

I drained the pasta, added it to the pan of sauce and mixed it all together. Then it was time to feast! Yummo! I possibly put a little too much chili into the sauce, but I like it hot! You can reduce the amount of chili to your taste.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I made these little babies on one of my days off last week. I used Jiffy Devil's Cake mix for the cupcakes and created Peanut Butter Frosting to cap them off. Here is the recipe for the frosting...

You'll need 2/3 cup of peanut butter, 1/4 cup of butter that you whip with an electric beater until light in color and fluffy.

You then gradually add 1 cup of sifted icing sugar. If the mix starts getting too stiff add a splash of cream or milk and keep beating til all of the sugar is mixed in. I used a piping bag to ice my cupcakes this time, but I don't think the nozzle opening was large enough. I think next time, I'll just use a spatula to frost them.

Voila! You have a dozen chocolate peanut butter cupcakes that taste just like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!

Bon appetit!