MOXVOX

1 cup castor sugar
1 1/2 cup selfraising flour
The rind and juice of one blood orange
2 eggs
1/2 a vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
125g softened butter
a few spoons of milk (if needed to make the mixture th right consistency)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius
Add all ingredients into a bowl and blend with a hand held stick blender of mixer until smooth, add extra milk if needed.
Divide mixture into 12 large size cupcake cases.
Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes

Leave to cool

Icing

approx 1 cup Icing sugar
approx 2 tablespoons Butter (Softened)
Juice of 1/2 a Blood Orange
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Blend with a stick blender until smooth and creamy

Wait for cupcakes to cool, before topping then with frosting

Garnish with strips of rind or if you like as I have done finely sliced blood orange (use a mandoline slicer)

Carrot dip

6 or 7 carrots
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
200g creamy Greek style yoghurt
Pinch of salt
6 or 7 carrots
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
200g creamy Greek style yoghurt
Pinch of salt
1 teasp. ground cumin
1-2 teasp sweet paprika
A squeeze of lemon

Grated carrot (either coarsely or finely – up to you…I like finely grated) and lightly saute in the olive oil until slightly tender, but not fully cooked. The aim is just to soften the carrot a little. Let it cool.
Then combine with all the other ingredients. Refrigerate and then serve with turkish bread or toasted lavash. I think this tastes better if made the night before and then left in the fridge. The flavour of the carrot and garlic seems to improve. Bon appetit!!

(I have a photo somewhere, but it’s friday afternoon and…….)

Recipe from Jamie Oliver and highly recommended

Ingredients:
• 1 x 2kg/4½lb free-range organic chicken
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2kg/4½lb potatoes, peeled
• 1 large, preferably unwaxed, lemon
• 1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
• a handful of fresh thyme
• olive oil
• a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
• optional: 8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

Method:
Rub the chicken inside and out with a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Do this in the morning if possible, then cover the chicken and leave in the fridge until you’re ready to start cooking it for lunch or dinner. By doing this, you’ll make the meat really tasty when cooked. Preheat your oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cut the potatoes into golf-ball-sized pieces, put them into the water with the whole lemon and the garlic cloves, and cook for 12 minutes. Drain and allow to steam dry for 1 minute (this will give you crispier potatoes), then remove the lemon and garlic. Toss the potatoes in the pan while still hot so their outsides get chuffed up and fluffy – this will make them lovely and crispy when they roast.

While the lemon is still hot, carefully stab it about 10 times. Take the chicken out of the fridge, pat it with kitchen paper and rub it all over with olive oil. Push the garlic cloves, the whole lemon and the thyme into the cavity, then put the chicken into a roasting tray and cook in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate. Some lovely fat should have cooked out of it into the roasting tray, so toss the potatoes into this with the rosemary leaves. Shake the tray around, then make a gap in the centre of the potatoes and put the chicken back in. If using the bacon, lay the rashers over the chicken breast and cook for a further 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are nice and golden. (You can tell the chicken is cooked when the thigh meat pulls easily away from the bone and the juices run clear.)

I like to remove the bacon from the chicken and crumble it up over the potatoes. Then I remove the lemon and garlic from inside the chicken, squeeze all the garlic flesh out of the skin, mush it up and smear it all over the chicken, discard the lemon and rosemary and carve the chicken at the table. Heaven!

I didn’t take a photo amazingly …next time…

I didn’t use thyme or bacon and it was still delish. Next time I think I will roast some sweet potatoe and garlic alongside the potatoes.

Check out this awesomely clever idea via LUXIRARE

Such a great idea…they look so cute as well…totally inspired right now thinking of the endless possibilities!!

“A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.”

For me Japanese noodles and Gyoza don’t get much better than Ichiban Boshi…well priced authentic Japanese made quick and plentiful. Ichiban Boshi has a store in Bondi Junction (which thankfully recently moved into a slightly bigger premises) and another in the city upstairs at Galleries Victoria. The other week I decided to try the city branch….

Verdict!?!?!?
Unlike Bondi, here there is a waiting list/line to be seated…we were in no rush and to me it made me even more excited as I knew it was going to taste soooo good!
Equally as tasty, especially the Tantanmen – Yum!

Ichban Boshi make Gyoza that make me feel ashamed at my efforts…so tender and flavoursome.
But the real bonus for here is the fact that on the same level resides Books Kinokuniya…the most amazing bookstore ever….

Photo by supercamel

All this week I have been craving a cinnamon cookie…
Searching and searching for an easy recipe that was big on cinnamon flavour, I didn’t really come across anything too amazing.
Then I found Snickerdoodles…To me and I think most Australians this is not a familiar cookie or biscuit (am I wrong?)
Anyway, silly name, glorious cookie!!

I did make slight changes as I did not have enough white sugar, so used raw sugar in the actual cookie dough…plus I wanted cinnamon overload, so instead of vanilla extract, I used 3 teaspoons of cinnamon!! Yummo!
This recipe is taken from Joy of Cooking.

I really like the way these turned out and I think the basic dough has a lot of scope to play around with…I am thinking caraway biscuits next and maybe something with sesame and pistacho…Keep you posted

Snickerdoodles:

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups (385 grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar ( I used raw)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ( I replaced this with 3 teaspoons of cinnamon)

Coating:

1/3 cup (66 grams) granulated white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Method:

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until smooth (about 2 to 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. If the dough is soft, cover and refrigerate until firm enough to roll into balls (one to two hours).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape the dough into 1 inch (2.54 cm) round balls.

Coating: In a large shallow bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.

Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar and place on the prepared pan, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Then, using the bottom of a glass, gently flatten each cookie to about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick.

Bake the cookies for about 8 – 10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Can store in an airtight container, at room temperature, for about 10 – 14 days. If they last this long!!

I made this tonight. Never thought to combine Fennel with Dill before, but now that I have done it, I see that it is a fantastic marriage. Simple and quick!

Ingredients:
1 bulb of fennel sliced thinly on the diagonal
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1/2 zucchini julienned
small amount of fresh chopped dill
1 tb each of butter and olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Wash fennel and remove rough outer layers if neccesary.
Julienne zucchini
Heat oil and butter in a pan over medium heat, adding fennel and zucchini
Sauté until they are both slightly caramalised, then add sliced garlic, lemon juice and chopped dill
Season with salt and pepper

Serve with herbed cous cous and I think would be perfect with steamed fish (I will try this next time) or a simple green salad.

Serves 2 as a light meal.