cooking - Semantically driven

Cupcake

January 4, 2010 by Jen

JJ got a cook book for Christmas and today we tried a recipe for cupcakes from it. I got him to read out the ingredients to me and he got them out of the cupboard. Again, I made him look for the labels of the ingredients as it’s really easy to get someone else to do it for you.

With only a mishap of spilling the sugar all over the floor, the sugar that I’d forgotten to put into the mixture the cakes were cooked.

I’ve only got blue and red food colouring so JJ said I could make purple if I wanted as that’s my favourite colour. Bless him. It wasn’t quite enough to cover all the cakes but I don’t mind if I give those ones a miss and let JJ eat them.

The best pasta bake I’ve ever tasted

October 4, 2009 by Jen

I was recently sent some canned tomatoes (SPC Ardmona) to try out. I use canned tomatoes all the time so thought I’d give them a go. I was also sent a recipe book and I cooked the Mushroom Bolognese Bake.

These canned tomatoes are supposed to be rich and thick and I wanted to see if they really were. Some canned tomatoes I buy are more watery than tomatoey but these seemed to live up to their promise.

Ardmona rich and think canned tomatoes

Makes enough for 4-6 serves.

Ingredients

250g dried Penne pasta
300ml thickened cream (I used low fat cream)
grated rind of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and ground pepper to taste

Mushroom meat sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
400g pork or veal mince (I used beef mince)
200g mushrooms – sliced
410 can Ardmona wine infused chopped tomatoes
1 cup water
5 stalks silver beet chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts (I didn’t use this as my son’s allergic to nuts)
1 cup grated Mozarella cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water according to packet directions. Drain and return to saucepan.
Stir through cream, lemon rind and juice. Season to taste with pepper. Set aside.
Heat oil in frying pan. Brown mince for 3 minutes over high heat, stirring often to break up lumps.
Stir in mushrooms, canned tomatoes and water. Return to the boil, cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Stir in silver beet.
Spoon a layer of mushroom meat sauce into 8 cup casserole dish, top with pasta mixture and remaining sauce. Lightly toss together.
Sprinkle with pine nuts (if using) and cheese.
Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake further 5-10 minutes until cheese lightly browns.

Mushroom bolognese pasta bake

When eating this my son actually complimented me on the taste which he very rarely does this. For me, the lemon made all the difference as I’ve never used lemon with pasta before and it was gorgeous.

I’ll definitely be cooking this one again. It was easy, delicious and big enough to last us for a few meals.

Crockpot (slow cooker)

May 14, 2009 by Jen

Margaret Fulton's Crockpot cookbook

When I was growing up in the 70s many of my meals were done in the crockpot (done by mum that is). Now, about 30 years later slow cookers (as they are called now) are making a comeback here and I’m a convert.

A few people I know have bought slow cookers and swear by them. I sort of listened to them and wondered what all the fuss was about and gradually all the talk started sinking in. It sank in so much that I finally went and bought one with a voucher I had from Christmas.

I have certainly got my money’s worth out of it by using it at least once a week and I love it. The main thing I love about it is that once all the ingredients are in the cooker you don’t have to do anything. When I’ve cooked large meals in a saucepan, for instance, I’ve had trouble with some of it sticking to the bottom of the pan but with the slow cooker this doesn’t happen. It’s an absolute breeze to clean.

The other thing I love about it is that I have enough food in it to feed us a few meals so my freezer always has leftovers.

I love it so much I must have told nearly anyone who’ll listen about it. I now have evidence that my talking about my slow cooker has sunk into at least one person because she presented me with Margaret Fulton’s Crockpot cookbook this week. She knows I’m into op-shopping and she also knows I’m into my slow cooker and this book was from the op-shop. For the non-Australian readers, Margaret Fulton is fairly well known here for her recipe books and in fact I have another of hers I found second hand that’s an encyclopedia of food and cookery and has lots of those basic recipes that most recipe books don’t have.

It’s got some fascinating recipes in there. One these recipes I wouldn’t eat if I was desperate the Pressed ox tongue. No thanks.

The great thing about the book is that it talks about adapting your favourite recipes for the crockpot or slow cooker, and did you know that you can cook cakes in a crockpot? Neither did I. I’ve got some experimenting to do thanks to Margaret Fulton and my colleague.