Ms Fifikins

Remember The Omnivore’s 100? Well here is the festive version! Again from Very Good Taste. Yes, they haz it!

Here’s what to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve tasted.
3) Place an asterisk after all the items you’ve cooked/prepared.
4) Optional: Cross out anything you never want to try, or add an exclamation mark after anything your really want to try.
You’re also welcome to post a link to your version of the list here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk.

The VGT Christmas Fifty

1. Crystallised or candied fruits
2. Egg nog
3. Bûche de Noël, or Yule log*
4. Rum balls*
5. Bebinca
6. Roasted chestnuts*
7. Cavallucci
8. Tourtière
9. Uszka
10. Port & Stilton
11. Hallaca
12. Roast goose
13. Lefse
14. Sugar plums
15. Romeritos
16. Pinnekjøtt
17. Hot toddy*
18. Christmas cake*
19. Tamales
20. Sorpotel
21. Panettone
22. Candy canes
23. Pasteles
24. Speculaas
25. Makowiec
26. Christmas pudding*
27. Stollen
28. Figgy pudding
29. Lebkuchen
30. Turrón
31. Mince pies*
32. Wassail bowls
33. Buñuelos
34. Pio Quinto
35. Marzipan fruits
36. Mulled wine*
37. King cake
38. Christmas beach barbecue (no!- and I don’t know if I ever will as it is too hot!)
39. Cola de mono
40. Lutefisk
41. Kutia
42. Pizzelle
43. Dominostein
44. Cranberry sauce*
45. Pfeffernüsse
46. Satsumas or clementines
47. Pumpkin pie
48. Smalahove
49. Nut roast
50. Brandy butter*

Giving me a score of… drum roll… 28… Seems I have some eating to do!

My grandfather was a Soldier Settler at Dunkeld in Western Victoria. Predominantly he grazed sheep and I have fond memories of a young girl visiting the farm during shearing, mulesing, dipping and other times. I remember riding on the back of a tractor feeding out hay as a 5 or 6 year old and hand feeding the orphan lambs who lived in the chook yard with a milky formula using long teets on long neck beer bottles. I remember Pa finding orphan lambs and placing them in front of the wood stove in the kitchen to warm them up.

I don’t remember seeing a sheep killed, but I do remember the boot being packed out with a side of lamb. Mum even had a butchers saw at home and would saw the chops if it had not been done previously. So yes, we ate a lot of lamb! I never got into the lambs fry like my father did, but I have alwyas adored roast lamb and lamb chops.

One of Mum’s favourite ways of cooking forequarter chops was to make a casserole called ‘Jarred Chops Sweet and Sour.’ I am pretty sure the recipe came from the PWMU Cookbook, or it may have been on a handwritten card from one of the women in the Dunkeld district. Wherever it came from it is so yummy and easy and just brings back so many very happy memories.

Jarred Chops Sweet and Sour

1 1/2 lb. chops, 1 tbl sp flour, 1 tsp sugar, 3 tbl sp tomato sauce, 2 tbl sp Worcester sauce, 1 tbl sp vinegar, 1 large cup water, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt

Remove fat from chops, roll in flour with which is mixed sugar, pepper and salt and place in casserole. Mix all liquid ingredients together well and pour over chops. Place in a moderate oven & cook until tender (about 1 3/4 hrs.)

This is comfort food! Perfect with mashed spuds and peas. The kids love it, I love it and it reminds me of my early childhood. I only hope my kids have as many happy memories of holidays visiting grandparents as I do.

I love baking. Always have. Whilst I love cooking and have gained enough confidence to cook from my head with some great results, baking is very structured and ordered and that is what I like.

But… I also like easy recipes! We had a morning tea at work yesterday for Jeans for Genes day. I baked Damp Orange and Almond Cake on Wednesday night (yes, blog post to follow!) and wanted something to just throw together that would have ok results!

I found this recipe from an email from one of the Supermums mentioned in my Friendship blog post. It was sent it to us in 2004 and I have only just gotten around to trying it. I have lots of recipes like this!

One of my habits is that when I ‘damage’ something intentionally I name it. So I throw cardboard boxes in the compactor at work and name them, then squash them. I chop up the used gift cards at work and name them. Well this recipe let me name lots of different people and things as I bashed malt biscuits! I could have done it in the food processor, but I used my trusty rolling pin. I used a bit of force as I bashed through three plastic bags! So I put them in a bowl and kept bashing. So yes, beware if ever you get on my wrong side!

The rest is super easy! Melt butter, choc mint chocolate and a tin of condensed milk together. Condensed milk= instant win!

Finally you mix it together

Spread it into a tin and top with melted chocolate:

After half an hour or so in the fridge you can cut it.

I think everyone who had a taste at work came back for seconds. Lots of nice comments too!

Oh and here is the recipe! Thanks again Myf! And make sure you don’t wait 4 years to try this!

Choc Mint Slice

2 packets 250g malt biscuits
185g butter
1 x 400g tin condensed milk
1 x 250g block peppermint chocolate
185g dark chocolate drops

Melt together the condensed milk, butter and peppermint chocolate over low heat until combined. To crush biscuits, place them in a bag and crush with a rolling pin. Add crushed biscuits to chocolate mixture. Line a large slice tin with gladwarp and press mixture into tin. Melt chocolate drops in the microwave for 1 minute and spread over the top. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before slicing into small squares.

And it must be wholesome as the biscuit packet advertises this nutritional gem:

I love cooking with yeast. Since Priscilla arrived it is easier as her dough hook makes it a breeze. But it still amazes me! You can’t get fresh yeast in Cairns. Well not bakers yeast anyway. I suspect we would have the climate to do a proper sour dough starter and I will try that one of these days, but until then I use the easy blend dried stuff.

These bagels are Nigella’s recipe:

1 kg of white flour, plus more as necessary for kneading.
1 tbspn of salt
7g of easy yeast or 15g of fresh yeast
2 tbspns of sugar
1 tbspn vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
500mL warm water, plus more as needed
2 tbspns of malt or sugar, for poaching the bagels
2-3 baking sheets, oiled or greased.

Combine the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl, add the sugar and the oil to the water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid, mixing to a dough with a spatula or wooden spoon. (or do as I do and just add it all to the bowl of the mixer!)

Knead the dough either by hand or with dough hook, trying to add more flour if you can, dough is better drier than wetter, the dough will be stiff and hard work, even with the dough hook it takes 10 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and put it into an oiled bowl, turning once to coat all around, then cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave it to rise for 1 hour. It should be well risen, and when you poke it with your finger , the impression should remain.

Punch the dough down and then give a good knead and divinde into 3 pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece into a rope then cut each rope into 5 pieces. Roll each piece between the palmns of your hands into a ball and then roll into another rope, curling to form ring. Seal the ends by overlapping.

Put on a large pan of water to boil, when it boils add the malt or the sugar.

Sit the bagels on the baking sheets cover with tea towels and leave for 20 minutes by which times they should be puffy. Preheat oven to 240C.

When the water is boiling, start poaching, drop a couple of bagels at a time into the bioling water and boil for 1 minute turning them once, use a couple of spatulas for this.

As you poach them put them back onto the oiled baking sheets (yes this is important as I forgot to oil the sheets and they stuck!) well spaced and then bake for 10-15 minutes until they’re shiny and golden brown.

Makes 15 Bagels.

Appropriate doing Jewish cooking on Good Friday? Doesn’t worry me anyway! Was going to do hot ? buns with the x replaced by a ? but I have run out of flour! Might leave that for another day!

It was my boss’s birthday today. It is actually a little strange thinking she is only 5 months older than me yet has been with the company since she was 17.

For her birthday I told her I would bake a cake. Now I adore cooking. I find it the ultimate form of relaxation, well apart from sitting in front of computer… When I was a vicar’s wife I loved cake stalls. I would bake for days and days and turn up with at least 8 different types of cakes, most of which had been doubled or tripled or more. I don’t bake regularly for my colleagues, but when I do it is appreciated, recipes asked for and ideas given!

I have often thought how wonderful it would be to have a café somewhere and actually bake the cakes to serve with the coffee instead of the mass produced crap that most places provide. Just imagine, decent coffee, homemade goodies, free wifi, varied lunch menu, good service… One day!

Back to the cake! I knew I wanted to bake a chocolate cake, but which one? I figured for a birthday it needed to be a double layer with chocolate icing. So I settled for Nigella’s ‘Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake’ from Feast. It is delectably easy- everything in a food processor (or in my case I just used Priscilla and the whisk attachment) and blend for a few minutes. Icing is a fudge icing with chocolate, butter, golden syrup, sour cream and icing sugar. I never thought I was a cake decorator, but the comments today suggest otherwise. Amazing what some sugar flowers can do!

Of course with this detox, I didn’t eat any, but the comments were pretty good, well comments and oohs and aahs! Plus the office team wanted me to bake something for them as they missed out. Think I might be able to arrange that! Plus the kids have asked for some more baking… Might be a relaxing couple of weekends.