happy mothers' day

Here are 2 recipes that always remind me of my Mum.

Curry puffs

These are deliciously moreish, particularly fresh out of the oven. So typically there was a huge dent in the number that we planned to take to get-togethers (often along with another family favourite, mango pudding).

You'll need:

500g beef mince
2-3 medium sized potatoes
1 small can of coconut cream
1 onion, diced
3 tablespoons of your favourite curry powder
3 sheets of puff pastry
1 egg

1. Boil potatoes until soft, then mash to the consistency that you like. I prefer my potatoes a bit chunky still for that added texture, but a smoother consistency would make the puffs easier to fill.
2. Brown onion on the stove until fragrant.
3. Add mince and stir until cooked.
4. Add potatoes, coconut cream and curry powder and stir to combine.
5. Simmer mince mixture or 5 minutes or so, or until thick.
6. Place mince mixture aside to cool until at least room temperature.
7. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
8. Cut puff pastry into squares (either 9 or 16 is fine - 9's will hold more, 16's are, in my opinion, cuter but trickier to fill).
9. Place approximately one teaspoon of filling into each square and fold into a triangle (rectangles, like tiny sausage rolls, also works well).
10. To prevent the filling bursting out of the pastry in an unattractive fashion, use a fork to press down each of the open sides of the triangle/rectangle. I was too lazy this time round.
11. Brush each puff with egg.
12. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
13. Cool on a wire rack and watch them disappear!

You'll often end up with more than enough filling for 3 sheets of pastry, depending on the size of the potatoes and how full you make the puffs - the leftover filling is delicious with rice.

Rice crispies - adapted from this recipe

You'll need:

3 cups of rice bubbles
1 packet of marshmallows (I've used packets of varying sizes and they all turn out ok)
50g of butter

1. Melt marshmallows and butter in a pan until combined.
2. Pour over rice bubbles and stir to combine.
3. Press mixture into lined lamington tray and refrigerate until set.
4. Cut into fingers and enjoy.

You can add some nuts and/or Milo for variety, but I find that the Milo makes it overly sweet.

Hope you all have a great day :) Thanks for everything, Mum!

accidental brownies

Mum made Almond Roca the other day. Well, not the trademarked-comes-in-a-box almond roca, but a toffee-almond-chocolate concoction that tasted remarkably like the addictive stuff.

Upon my return to the big smoke, I thought I'd give it a try too. I found this recipe and thought, "right, a stick of butter, does that mean the whole 250g pack that we get in Australian supermarkets?" If only I'd checked this out first...

So after putting the entire 250g pack in, I was left with a fudge-like substance that didn't resemble my Mum's creation at all. Oops.

Solution? Turn it into brownies! 

I usually use a brownie recipe from my ever-trusty Kid's Cookbook - this is adapted from the Donna Hay Modern Classics cookbook.

Ingredients

250g butter

1 and 3/4 cup brown sugar

1 packet of Coles slivered almonds (125g?)

1 packet Old Gold dark chocolate (400g)

1 cup plain flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1. Line a lamington tin with baking paper.

2. Melt butter in pan and stir in brown sugar until it dissolves. Stir continuously for 7 minutes, just like the about.com recipe says, and then ask Mum "why doesn't it thicken?" Mum then says, "no! My recipe said to leave it alone and wait until it thickens." Sigh in over-exasperated fashion.

3. Melt chocolate in microwave. It took my microwave about 2 minutes on medium power.

4. Leave butter and brown sugar mixture alone. Create glass of ice-cold water on Mum's instructions. Drop tiny bits of toffee mixture into water until it forms a droplet rather than dissipates into the water. Get excited.

5. Stir almonds into toffee mixture.

6. Pour toffee mixture into lined lamington tin.

7. Pour chocolate over toffee mixture. Wonder why the toffee seems to be separating into toffee and butter.

8. Place lamington tin into freezer as per about.com recipe instructions.

9. Retrieve lamington tin from freezer 20 minutes later and present to Mum in dismay.

10. Find Donna Hay cookbook and stir eggs together with flour and baking powder in medium mixing bowl.

11. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius.

11. Pour in mass from lamington tin into mixing bowl and stir until combined.

12. Pour mixture into lamington tin once again.

13. Wait until little red light switches off on oven, meaning oven is ready to accept foods. Place lamington tin into oven and hope for the best.

14. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre.

In the end they turned out ok. Lesson to learn? Mother knows best...

all-purpose buns

I love the smell of baking in the morning.

Doesn't have quite the same ring as the Robert Duvall line, does it? Regardless, these buns are actually great for any time of the day. The recipe was originally given to me to make sausage buns, found in Asian bakeries the world over, but you can substitute any filling you'd like. I've used bacon and cheese this time around - char siu (barbequed pork) and onion, or tuna and corn also work well, or you can try sweet fillings like red bean or chocolate.

You'll need:

500g plain flour
100g sugar
250ml water - you can use milk for a more substantial bun, or try half milk half water
15g yeast - if you get the little pre-packed sachets of yeast (such as the Tandaco brand, which we've used in the past), this is equivalent to 2 sachets. Otherwise use 4 teaspoons of yeast
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
50g butter, melted
1 tablespoon of honey or golden syrup

This recipe makes 24 small, snack-sized buns.

1. Heat the water/ milk to body temperature. Using my microwave it took 30 seconds on high. Don't over-heat it, or you'll kill the yeast.



2. Dissolve the yeast and sugar into the water/ milk. It'll look an unappetising beige/grey colour.



3. Wait 10 minutes for the yeast to activate. There should be little bubbles on the surface of the mixture (unfortunately not too clearly discernible in the photo, also starring the melted butter and the beaten egg).

4. Place flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Create a well in the middle of the flour and pour the egg, butter and yeast solution in. If you plan to glaze the buns, reserve a little of the egg at this stage.



5. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to form a ball. Add some more flour gradually if it's too liquid or sticky. Once the dough stops sticking to the spoon, get your hands in there and knead for 15-20 minutes.

6. Cover mixing bowl with a tea towel and place it in a warm place for 1 hour. We put it in an oven that hasn't been switched on.



7. Dough should have risen to twice its original size - don't worry too much about its exact size, the dough will continue to rise when you put the filling in and put it in the oven. Split the dough up into two pieces, it's easier to work with half of it at a time. The second photo shows half the dough being divided up into 12 pieces (first 4 pieces , and then each of the 4 pieces into 3 smaller pieces. Motherflap has been known to weigh them...)

8. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.



9. Fill the buns however you'd like. If you're making sausage buns, the dough is traditionally wrapped around the cocktail sausage. I've taken the lazy route and just popped the cheese and bacon (200g of each for the 24 buns) on top. To make filled buns, roll each piece of dough out to make a circle of about 8cm in diameter. Put the filling in the middle of the circle, then bunch up the edges like a dumpling. Put the dough on the tray bunched side down so that the top of the bun will be nice and smooth.

10. If you'd like shiny buns, mix the reserved egg together with the honey or golden syrup and brush on top of each bun.



11. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

These are great for lunchboxes, picnics or parties. There's just something magical about baking bread - seeing the dough rise, marvelling at the air bubbles that come up when you split it into pieces and most of all the smell that wafts out from the kitchen as it bakes in the oven. It'll bring even the most hardened hibernator out into the sunlight, I promise!



My idea of a pyramid scheme. I don't think it'll catch on just yet in place of cupcakes as a wedding cake substitute...

mango pudding

This is a family favourite that we often take to bring-a-plate get-togethers. I think its popularity has something to do with the fluorescent orange-ness of it, combined with the smooth texture of the jelly and of course delicious mango sweetness. Once you try the home-made version you'll stop ordering it at yum cha!

You'll need:

2 medium-sized mangoes (you can try using tinned mangoes if you're desperate, but they don't quite taste the same)
2 packets mango jelly powder
500ml hot water
2 eggs
180 ml (1 small can) evaporated milk or 2/3 cup normal milk

To make:



1. Combine the two packets of mango jelly with the hot water. We like the Aeroplane Jelly brand - somehow the mango flavoured packets only appear sporadically at our local supermaket, so we stock up when we can!



2. Chop the mango into small cubes.



3. Combine the eggs and milk. The evaporated milk is more traditional and gives a slightly different flavour, but normal milk is fine (and some people prefer the taste that the normal milk gives).



4. Wait until the jelly mixture cools to at least body temperature, and then add the egg and milk mixture and mango into the jelly mixture. If the jelly mixture is too hot you'll end up with bits of cooked egg in jelly, kind of like a Chinese egg flower soup. Not really the look you're going for with mango pudding.



5. Pour entire mixture into a container and put in the fridge for at least 4 hours. This is our trusty mango pudding container which has been around as long as I can remember - but any container is fine.

Enjoy!