Recipes
Warm Sausage Couscous Salad
This is the delicious result of using stuff that needed using in the fridge and pantry.
Warm Sausage and Couscous Salad
Serves 2
Method
- Make couscous according to packet. I used one cup which makes two serves. Use a large bowl that you can later add everything else to.
- Heat a frying pan and fry a teaspoon of taco seasoning for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
- Slice a couple of sausages and half a capsicum, add to pan and fry on high heat to get a nice caramelisation going.
- Chuck in some chopped baby bak choy (Shanghai) and cook until wilted. Other greens like broccoli, beans or asparagus would work too but you probably would want to blanch those first.
- Drain a can of chickpeas (or other beans), and rinse.
- Use a fork to fluff up cooked couscous, add in a tablespoon of chutney, then throw everything else in and combine.
Banoffee Tart
Being a busy mum, I have bugger all time to do anything else these days, like blogging for instance… But I can still pretend I can bake dessert (which is still quite mumsy really).
You can do wonders with just puff pastry, caramel (premade stuff in a jar or can) and bananas – well, you can do one wonderful thing: Banoffee Tart.
Looking good already
Cut, slice, spread, assemble and bake at something like 210° C for 20 minutes… I can’t remember but they should be puffy and crisp, and delicious. A sprinkling of cinnamon and/or chocolate before baking makes it look and taste a little fancy.
Busy-mum banoffee tarts
Here you kiddies – now mummy needs a drink.
Chocolate Sponge Roll
Want cake and want it fast and easy? Try this chocolate sponge roll recipe that is off the Swiss roll tin I’ve got. It takes hardly any time to prepare, only 8 minutes to cook, a few to cool down, and then spread it with jam if you’re really lazy, or spend a couple minutes whipping some cream. I filled this one with Morello cherries, and cherry liquer whipped cream, then dusted it with icing sugar.
A sweet and simple cake
Rolling it can be a little tricky – sometimes I get a great roll, sometimes it cracks and flattens, but it still tastes great!
Oh, and a word of warning – don’t leave it on the coffee table where your dog can reach it. I came back to one once that had the cream from one end licked clean out of the roll as far as Fez could reach!
Chocolate Sponge Roll
Makes 1
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 Tbsp cocoa
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp boiling water
- Whipped cream sweetened with icing sugar, and jam for filling. Use whatever you like – could be buttercream too or just jam or just whipped cream, or add in some tinned fruit.
Method
- Preheat oven to 230°C.
- Line a sponge roll tin with baking paper. I have an expandable tin, and usually the dimensions are about 24cmx25cm for this recipe, but you can vary this a little.
- Beat eggs and sugar until thick and creamy (about 4 minutes with an electric beater).
- Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder onto egg mixture.
- Fold dry ingredients in carefully with a spatula or wooden spoon.
- Add boiling water and mix again.
- Spread mixture into sponge roll tin and even out with a spatula.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until cooked.
- Cool completely before filling.
Once cooled, I turn the cake out onto a clean tea towel so the top is lying on the tea towel, and remove the baking paper.
Then I spread the filling evenly onto the cake, leaving a couple of centimeters at the top edge for the filling to spread during rolling.
I use the tea towel to lift and roll up the cake, like sushi. I pick up the tea towel from the side closest to me and lift the cake up with it, and slowly roll the cake onto itself (while holding the tea towel as well as using your fingers to roll). I continue to lift using the tea towel to support the cake, and roll little by little until the cake is completely rolled up.
Dust with icing sugar to make it look pretty. If the ends are looking a bit dry, you can slice those off before serving to guests.
Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Iced coffee
Go to a Vietnamese restaurant, or my mum’s house, and you can get a refreshing iced coffee done the Vietnamese way.
Sweetened condensed milk is used in place of milk and sugar. I assume this is because Vietnam isn’t known for its dairy so fresh milk is hard to come by. The condensed milk also sweetens the drink and gives it a caramel taste, so it’s all good!
The way I make it is to dissolve 2 teaspoons of instant coffee in a couple spoonfuls of boiling water, stir in 2 tablespoons of condensed milk and fill the glass with ice and top with cold water.
You can stir the drink before you serve it, or do it the traditional way and serve with a straw so your guests can do it themselves.
Ooh I just read wikipedia’s entry on condensed milk, and recall mum giving us sweetened condensed milk on toast when we were kids. I never thought so before but it sounds weird now!
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