Apricot Blush Hot Toddies

 

 

It's been a cold and rainy weekend so we've had fun creating hot toddies with Barker's Apricot Blush. It's made by Barker's of Geraldine and consists of  crushed local Central Otago apricots blended with tropical pineapple and lime. We made two for the adults and one for the kids.

 

Apricot Blush Hot Toddy:

 

Ingredients: Per person

 

1 teabag

juice of 1/2 orange

1 tablespoon of Barker's Apricot Blush (or to taste)

1 cup/glass  of hot water

1 cinnamon stick

1 slice of ginger

a  slice of orange ( quartered)

 

Method:

 

Put the juice of 1/2 orange into a cup/glass.

Pour in the boiling water.

Add a teabag and slice of ginger 

Leave to steep for a minute or so before removing the teabag.

Float a slice of orange on top.

Stir with a cinnamon stick and serve while hot.

 

Apricot Blush and Brandy Toddy:

 

Proceed as above but omit the teabag.

Instead add a nip of brandy.

 

Eeny Weeny Toddies ( for the littlies)

 

Squeeze half an orange into each glass.

Add 1 tablespoon of Apricot Blush (or to their taste)

Fill the cup/glass with boiling water.

Float slices of orange on top.

 

 

 

 

Rolled Oats and Raisin Cookies

To keep the lads fed at the Lakehouse in Takapuna Woodsculpture Live I baked some Rachel Allen Cookies which went down a treat and spurred them on to further action.

Ingredients:

110 gram sof butter ( softened)
110 grams of caster sugar
110 grams of  soft light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
250 grams of rolled oats
110 grams of self raising flour
1 level teaspoon of salt
110 grams  of raisins/ chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 180C

Cream the butter until soft and then add the sugars and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add the egg, water and vanilla extract while still beating. Reduce the speed and gently mix in the oats, flour, salt and raisins/chocolate chips to form a dough.
Using you hands roll the dough into walnut sized balls and place slightly apart on two baking trays ( no need to grease or line)
Bake in the oven for 15-35 minutes until light golden brown but still slightly soft in the centre.
Allow to cool on the trays for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool,






 

Kate's Mushroom, Thyme and Mascarpone pasta

Kate rustled up this recipe for her Belgian friends Cedric and Wimpke last weekend. There was no parmesan so she used some very finely grated tasty cheddar.
This they especially liked because of its stronger and slightly tart flavour. Maybe we should appreciate our kiwi tasty cheddar more!
When I made it again I added some lightly toasted pinenuts which added some crunch, but these are optional.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 a large onion
1 clove of garlic
2 tablespoons of chopped chives
2 tablespoons of finely chopped thyme
250 grams of  mushrooms ( the large flat ones are tastier than button mushrooms)
100 ml of white wine ( she used sauvignon blanc)
Freshly ground black pepper and salt
150 grams of mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
50 grams of pinenuts (optional)
400 grams fresh fettucini

Method:

Fry the onion and garlic in a frypan in one tablespoon of oil over a moderate heat until the onion has softened. Set aside,
Wipe the fry pan clean and fry the chopped mushrooms until slightly browned in one tablespoon of oil and one tablespoon of butter until the mushrooms are lightly browned at the edges.
Add the wine and keep frying for a minute or two until the wine has been absorbed.
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water until the al dente stage and drain  well.
Mix in the onions, mushrooms, herbs and mascarpone cheese and reheat gently.
Toss through the pinenuts and parmesan cheese and serve.

 

The Feijoa Cake from "Ripe a Fresh Batch" : A Tasting

Now what could we tempt Cedric and Wimke, our Belgian visitors with? We thought the The Feijoa cake from "Ripe: a fresh batch" would be the perfect choice?

Cedric's Grandfather was a famous pastry cook in Belgium who supplied icecream to the Belgian royal family. We knew it would have to be a special cake to impress.

 

 They were more than happy to give it a go

 

 

Cedric first! 

 

 

He could not stop at one bite. But it was time to share.

 

\

While Wimke enjoyed a taste Cedric was considering his verdict.

 They agreed it was a seriously good cake!

 

Ripe: A Fresh Batch at Cook the Books

After a rainy week the sun luckily came out last Saturday for a luscious afternoon tea at Cook the Books in Ponsonby to celebrate Ripe Deli's Second Cookbook "Ripe: A Fresh Batch" which has just been published. A very welcome successor to the first Ripe  Deli recipe book which appeared two years ago and from which I love to cook.

 

It was a great opportunity to sample some of the cakes from the book, to meet Angela Redfern (owner of Ripe Deli in Grey Lynn) who authored the book and chef Pip Wylie, two incredibly unasssuming and talented people.

 

My favourite, the moist and mooorish Feijoa cake with cream cheese icing.

 

Can't wait to try out some of the other recipes!

 

Angela Redfern 

 

Angela Redfern and chef Pip Wylie

 

 

A luscious afternoon Tea

 

The irresistable hazelnut chocolate cake 

 

 

Ripe a Fresh Batch on display at Cook the Books 

 

 

Leafing through the great recipes

 

 

Angela Redfern signing a customer copy of Ripe a New Batch

School Holiday Cooking

 

It's the school holidays, time for young cooks to have some fun in the kitchen. and as Emily, Becky and Susie are staying with us this was a good time for them to try these two recipes.

Two loved these iceblocks, one wasn't so keen. Becky has a sweet tooth and had we laced them with some honey I think she would have fallen for them as well.

Everyone liked the ambrosia, especially as Emily added some more mini marshmallows than the recipe I had created for her to try. She's 7 and can  cut grapes easily with a not too sharp knife and use a measuring cup and spoons but using an electric beater to whip the cream was a little scary, so we did it together.

The  ice blocks. were are made with Barker's Vegelife Fruit and Vegetable concentrate which is new on the market. And the recipe for these came from
their website.

Vegelife has no refined sugar or artificial sweeteners, no preservatives and no added colours or flavours. And it contains a wide spectrum of polyphenols and antioxidants including Vitamins A & C. For kids who hate eating veggies it is a great way to add some vegetable goodness to their diets.

Vegelife Ice blocks

To make these ice blocks we simply diluted 1 part of Vegelife to 3.5 parts of water. Then poured it into ice block moulds to freeze.

For dessert we made our version of Ambrosia (the food of the Gods in ancient Greece). This was a little more decadent but easy and fun to make. Stirring in a little Vegelife turned it a deliciously delicate pink.

We made it with grapes, but next time they can be creative and design their personal version by substituting their favourite fruit or some desiccated coconut.

If the Vegelife has run out a fruit flavoured yoghurt would be fine as well.


Ambrosia

To serve four

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of cream
1 cup of thick Greek yoghurt
1-2 tablespoons of Barker's Vegelife
1/2 cup each of seedless red and green grapes.
1/2 cup of baby marshmallows.

Method:

Chop the grapes into quarters
Stir the Vegelife into the yoghurt to make it pink
Add the chopped grapes and baby marshmallows
Whip the cream and mix it in lightly
Spoon into long-stemmed glasses or small bowls.
Leave in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.







 

Apricot Jellies

Emily who is seven loved making these gummy little sweets for a holiday treat.

They are easy to do but you do need to allow time for setting.
She poured the jelly into a ceramic dish and waited until it was set before using tiny metal cookie cutters to cut out the shapes.

I was sent some Barker's Apricot Blush to play with and we have had fun creating some new recipes with it. Its main ingredient is Central Otago Apricots but it also includes pineapple, lime and a dash of blackcurrent juice. It's a good source of vitamin C and has no artifical preservatives, colours or flavours so compared with shop bought these kittle gummy sweets are healthier.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of water
2/3 cup of Barker's Apricot Blush Fruit Syrup.
3 tablespoons of gelatine

Method

Sprinkle the gelatine over the water and give it a stir
Leave it for a minute or two until it has thickened.
Pour 3/4 cup of Barker's Apricot Blush into a saucepan and add the gelatine.
Keep stirring as you heat it until the gelatin has completely dissolved.
Pour into a 20 cm by 14 cm ceramic dish which has been rinsed in cold water .
Leave to set for about 3 hours in the fridge until very firm.
Use small cutters to cut out the apricot jellies.
Any left over pieces can be chopped into small cubes and layered with icecream and fruit salad for a kid friendly dessert.

 

 

Peanut Butter People

 

 

 

 

The school holidays have got off to a good start. Last night we went to the Pumphouse for a preview of Tim Bray's adaptation of A Dragon of an Ordinary Family by Margaret Mahy. Her magical story was transformed into a play which kept us in fits of laughter.
This morning Becky is being creative and making peanut butter people out of wholemeal toast, Ceres Organic Peanut butter (with no added salt) and a few raisins. So perfectly healthy!

She toasted the bread and used a large gingerbread man cutter to then cut them out.

Abby our lab has got her eyes on them, and is sittng down in anticipation of a treat  but unfortunately for her these are people not doggie treats.Now had she been a dragon she would probably have got away with it.
Off to Milford beach now to let her have a play before the forecasted heavy rain starts to pelt down.

 

Can Food Bloggers be Trusted?

Before breakfast this morning I checked my Food Blog. And there was a message from Vanessa who had chosen my jam tart recipe over all the others she'd googled and it just wasn't living up to her expectations.The mixture, she wrote, was too sticky. Now it was also going to be difficult to poke holes in them with the end of a wooden spoon for the jam filling.

I hastily printed off the recipe ( which had come from a primary school cookbook). Although I'd made it once before and it had turned out well I wanted to make it again to test that  I hadn't posted a dud. It is mid-autumn here. There was a chill in the air. And thankfully my dough turned out fine, not too sticky at all.

I wrote back to Vanessa to say that the if the weather at her end was hot and sticky this may well have caused the problem, Put it in the fridge to cool down for a while, I suggested, and/or flour your hands lightly before rolling.

I  popped the jam tarts into the oven to bake.They took less time than the original recipe had stated. By this time I realised that I should have mentioned this when I wrote the original jam tart blog.  But in my haste I had just posted the recipe as it appeared in the school recipe book. I began to have horrible visions of trays of charred tarts coming out of my readers' ovens. It was a wake-up call not to rush my blogs and to always note any changes I make to the recipe which I have now done.

So can food bloggers be trusted to get it right? I'm sure I am one of many creative culinary spirits. I'll bake a recipe once (or few times) and then if it comes out well, and tastes really good I'll post it. If not I won't make it again. I'm keen to make something new.

Maybe it's better to post less often and really perfect it over several months to make it foolproof . Or would that reduce the sense of spontaneity and excitement that  bloggers communicate as they  try out and post a new recipe ?

In comparison cookbook authors, one imagines ,will have tested their recipes many more times, or have testers who try them out for them before publishing. But the reality is that not every one of their recipes is perfect either. I've had my share of cookbook recipe failures and have had to twig them to get the desired result.

Photographs can tell lies as well. I'm an amateur but my family has been heard to say that some of my recipes looked better on the blog than on their dinner plates.

Professional photographers who have expensive cameras and lighting set ups and probably years of experience can make a humble dish look like a food fit for the gods, and it may not taste superb!

Feeling a little depressed that I'd failed one of my blog readers I dropped into our local Lakeside Arts Centre this morning to deliver morning tea for 30 wood sculptors and volunteers busy with the annual woodcarving event. They loved my baking, especially my best chocolate cake which also came from a community cookbook and was reprinted with their permission. And one of the guys even asked for my biscuit recipe.

But there seemed to be quite a lot of apricot and orange drizzle cake left on the table, a recipe which I had created especially for this event the previous day and it had tasted good to me. I'm thinking now I should have perfected it further before baking it for a morning tea or putting it on my blog. Or was it just that most of the sculptors were guys and they preferred the chocolate cake and crunchy oat cookies?

Blog readers can easily leave a comment under each recipe. I  love the positive and appreciative ones. This was the first one which queried whether I had got it right. And that's good too. I do hope people who try my recipes and find there's a problem will leave a comment.

The whole idea of a blog surely is that we can keep in touch with and learn from each other as we share our recipes . I do hope Vanessa hasn't given up on those jam tarts. We had them for breakfast today and they sure beat weetbix!


 

Apricot and orange drizzle cake

 

The reason this cake came into being was out of sheer desperation. I was in the process of making an orange drizzle cake and it needed finely grated orange rind. But my orange skin proved to be ungrateable although on the surface it looked perfectly normal , and was sweet and juicy. I bought it at our local supermarket and have been left wondering...is there a new mutant variety?

 

Well to cut a long story short I gave up on my original recipe and  flavoured the cake instead with some Barker's Apricot Blush, ground almonds and a few drops of almond essence. 

After baking it I drizzled it with a mixture of orange juice and sugar.  

 

Ingredients

 

175 grams of caster sugar

175 grams of butter ( softened)

2 eggs

175 grams of selfraising flour

2 tablespoons of ground almonds

a few drops of almond essence

4 tablespoons of Barker's Apricot Blush fruit syrup

 

For the drizzle

 

the juice of 1 orange

4 tablespoons of castor sugar

 

Method

 

Line a 22" square cake tin with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Beat in the flour, baking powder and eggs until combined.

Mix in the ground almonds and almond essence.

Spread the mixture into the cake tin.

While the cake is baking heat the sugar and orange juice together in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes until the cake is golden and tests done.

 

Prick holes in the cake with a skewer and pour the syrup all over the cake.

Leave it to soak in and let the cake cool in the tin before turning it out. 

 

Nice with some thick greek yoghurt

 

ps Since then I have had some good advice from my old friend Max in Switzerland who assures me that Aunt Daisy, bless her heart, refrigerated her oranges for half an hour to make them easier to grate.