Boss Cheesecake

For a longggg time, my colleagues and I had been hinting at our boss to bring in his reknowned cheesecake. We forgot about it for a while and then today, to our surprise, he brought it in! We have all been working our butts off of late, so it was nice and well-deserved treat.

The above picture taken on a mobile really doesn't do it justice - it was really good (and I'm not just saying that because my boss made it!). It was slightly lemony and very creamy. Here is the recipe to this easy, no-bake, classic cheesecake by the boss...

Ingredients
1 packet of granita biscuits
½ stick of butter (125 g)
1 can condensed milk
2 packets of cream cheese (Philadelphia)
Juice of 2 lemons
A little orange juice for more flavour (optional)

Method
1. Crumble the biscuits.
2. Melt butter and add to crumbs. At this point add lemon zest if you wish.
3. Mix and press into a greased springform tin to form the base. Refrigerate until base becomes solid
4. Add condensed milk and cream cheese to a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly until all the lumps are gone.
5. Add lemon juice and keep mixing until mixture starts to set.
6. Add mixture to cake tin, smooth over and refrigerate overnight.

Notes

• To make a large cheesecake – just double the ingredients (except for the base).
• To make this cheesecake more lemony, you could perhaps add up to 1 lemon's zest (finely chopped) to the recipe - half in the base, and half in the mixture.

So readers, has your boss ever cooked you anything? If yes, what was it? And did you like it?


Ladybird x

Polenta rounds with wilted spinach and roast mushrooms

Over the weekend  I discovered a new diet. I came to the realisation that the easiest way to curb your appetite and lose weight is to watch the television series Man vs. Wild. In each episode, a British guy called Bear is stranded in a region of the world and shows you how to survive and find your way back to civilsation. As fascinating as it all is, it's pretty gross, especially when it comes to what he eats.... Let's just say there are usually live animals involved - frogs, snakes, fish.. You name it, he eats it, cooked or uncooked. And it doesn't do much for my appetite.. in fact, it pretty much kills it.

Alas, Mr Ladybird is a diehard fan of the show, so somehow I still end up still watching it, albeit often peering through hands and screaming "Ewwww...!". So with Man vs. Wild a regular part of evenings in the Ladybird household at the moment, the size of our dinners on those evenings miraculously decreases, at least for me anyway. On such an evening, I decided I wanted to make something small with polenta. Polenta is one of those ingredients I really love but don't use enough, so I wanted to change that.

I decided to make polenta rounds topped with wilted spinach and delicious roast mushrooms. So here is a 'kinda-sort-of' recipe to this dish...

Polenta
This part of the dish can be made ahead of time, even 1 or 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge. This recipe will make a medium size slab of polenta which you can use for this dish, as well as others of your own creation. For example, polenta rounds topped with a fresh pesto and a slow roasted balsamic tomato, or you could even have some grilled polenta alongside some eggs, etc for a hearty savoury brunch.


Ingredients
500 ml water
500 ml milk
30 g parmesan cheese, grated
1 tsb butter
175 g polenta
salt and white pepper


Method
1. In a heavy-based saucepan, bring milk and water to boil and then whisk in the polenta until thoroughly mixed.
2. Reduce the heat to very low and simmer for 40 mins, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking.
3. Remove from heat, season, and mix through parmesan and butter.
4. Pour into a greased tray to set, smoothing to make it as flat as possible. It should be about a 2 cm thickness (I used a brownie tray and this worked well).
5. Allow to cool, then cut out two rounds with a food stack ring or egg ring.
6. Fry in a small amount of olive oil in a pan, turning once. Alternatively, brush with a little olive oil and cook on a griddle/chargrill pan unti lovely grill marks appear.

Mushrooms
I made the mushrooms by quartering button mushrooms and tossing them in a dish along with 2 crushed cloves of garlic, fresh thyme, olive oil, a small knob of butter and salt and pepper. I roasted them for 20 mins at 200 degrees celcius, and then crumbled a little dodoni fetta over the top and mixed through. The fetta lended a nice salty flavour to the mushrooms, and the creaminess of the fetta formed a light sauce when mixed with the pan juices.

Spinach
Wilting spinach is really quick and easy, and a good way to pack lots of healthy spinach into a meal with minimum fuss. In a large pan heat a drizzle of good olive oil and throw in a generous couple of handfuls of washed baby spinach leaves. Season and toss until the spinach is wilted, then remove from heat and use immediately.

To assemble the dish, carefully top cooked polenta pieces with wilted spinach and then mushrooms and a sprig of fresh thyme. Using a food stack ring may help. These are available from kitchen supply stores. Bon appetit!


Hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Ladybird x

Mojito

Sometimes when the weather is a little dreary and you've had a busy week, the best thing to do is to imagine you're holidaying somewhere tropical, with a cooling cocktail on hand. A mijoto is my holiday cocktail of choice, and here's how to make it!

Ingredients
1/2 lime, cut into pieces
3 tsp caster sugar
10-12 mint leaves
50 ml white rum (Bacardi)
soda water
crushed ice

Method
1. In a medium size glass muddle lime pieces and caster sugar hard. I used a rolling pin end for muddling.

2. Clap mint leaves in your hands to release their aroma. Add mint leaves to glass and muddle lightly.

3. Add bacardi and crushed ice and stir well.
4. Top with soda water and more crushed ice.

Tip

It's easy to make your own crushed ice at home without a blender. Just throw some ice cubes into a clean tea towel then roll it up and bash away with a rolling pin.

So tell me, what's your favourite holiday cocktail?

Cheers, and enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Ladybird x

Pizza Margarita & One Lovely Blog Award

It is said that pizza is what made Naples famous.. and it's all because of the Pizza Margherita (or Margarita as is usually said outside of Italy). It was first made in 1889 by a baker who wanted to create a pizza in honour of Queen Margherita's visit to Naples. He wanted the pizza to reflect the colours of the Italian flag - green, white and red. Hence this classic pizza was born, and is now enjoyed worldwide.

This is somewhat of a cheat's version to the Pizza Margarita.. On weekends I simply do not have the inclination to my own pizza dough, but if you are a pizza puritan at heart, go right ahead!.. At any rate, I think this is a quick, delicious and simple dish to make for a weekend lunch at home. So here goes...

Ingredients

1 greek pitta bread (or choose a wholemeal lebanese bread)

Few tablespoons passata

1 clove garlic, crushed

Few thin slices of tomato

1/2 large ball buffalo mozarella

Salt and pepper

Caster sugar to taste
Few basil leaves
Olive oil

Method
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees celcius, and line tray with tinfoil.

2. In a bowl, combine passata and garlic then season to taste with salt, pepper and sugar. The sugar take the edge of the tomatoes' acidity. The amount you require will depend on how tart your passata is, so just remember to taste. I only used a pinch.

3. Spread tomato base over pitta bread.

4. Top with sliced tomato, and torn pieces of mozarella. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the pizza.

5. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese starts to turn golden.

6. Remove from oven, top with a few basil leaves and serve immediately :)

Now that lunch is out of the way, it's time to get down to business and hand out some awards! Hooray! Last year I was fortunate enough to be awarded a One Lovely Blog Award from Mademoiselle Delicieuse of Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks. As a recipent of this award, I get to pass the award on to eight new recipents of my selection. So over the past month or so I have been looking out for lovely blogs worthy of this award. There is no shortage of great blogs out there so it was a pleasure discovering new blogs with this award in mind.

So... in no particular order, here are the recipients of the One Lovely Blog Award. Check them out some time!

• Kristy of Kissphotography
• Anita of Leave Room for Dessert
• Missklicious of Missklicious
• Trissa of Trissalicious
• Von of Vondelicious
• Sharon of Wee Love Baking
• Rose of Roses r Red
• Vicky of Sweets At Vickys

Well done guys, and keep up the fantastic blogging! According to the rules of this award, to accept it you have to post it on your blog along with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link. As recipients you then have the opportunity to pass the award onto eight bloggers you have recently discovered. Just announce the winners on your blog and don't forget to contact the recipients to let them know the good news ;)

Ladybird x

Pistachio Yoghurt & Cardamom Cake with Lime Syrup

As some of my regular readers may have noticed,  I have somewhat of an obsession with the cardamom. I find its fragrance and flavour absolutely heavenly, so it's no sursprise that whenever I come across a recipe to use it, I make a note of it with the hope of eventually making it. I have lost count of the number of recipes I've added to my Favorites.. could be time to revisit them and cull!

This recipe comes from 'Sweet Food' by Murdoch Books and requires a food processer. I have a Breville 'Whizz' which struggled a little, and started emitting strange groans in the final stages of use.. I do hope I haven't broken it!

Ingredients
150 g (1 cup) shelled, unsalted pistachios
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

150 g unsalted butter, chopped

1 1/2 c self raising flour

1 1/4 c caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c plain yoghurt
1 lime

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Butter and line a 20 cm round cake tin.
2. Place the pistachios and cardamom in a food processer and pulse until chopped.
3, Add the butter, flour and 3/4 c of caster sugar and pulse for 20 seconds or until crumbly.
4. Add combined eggs and yoghurt and pulse for 10 seconds or until just combined.
5. Spoon into the tin and smooth the surface.
6. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool.

7. To make the syrup, peel the zest off the lime with a vegetable peeler and remove any white pith from the zest.
8. Place remaining caster sugar and 100 ml water in a saucepan and stir over low heat until dissolved.
9. Bring to boil, then add lime zest and cook for 5 minutes.

10. Strain and cool slightly. Pierce cake with a few skewer holes and pour the hot syrup slowly over the cooled cake.

Notes
- This is a good morning/afternoon tea cake and would also be nice as a slab cake cut up into squares.
- I removed the cake from the tin before pouring over the syrup. Next time I think I'll cool the cake in the tin and then pour the syrup over and leave it to sit for half an hour or so before serving. I feel this method would make for a much more moist cake.

At this point, I would also like to announce that I have reached my Golden Post! :) I only realised this the other day when I added the number of posts for 2009 and 2010 together.. haha! In fact, this is technically my 51st post. At any rate, thank you for reading, and I hope to bring you many more posts that will leave you drooling on the keyboard ;)

Love,

Ladybird x

Chocolate Fondant for Two

All I need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

Lucy, Peanuts (Charles M. Schulz)

With Valentine's Day coming up, you might be looking for a special dessert to prepare for you and your loved one. A chocolate fondant is a perfect dessert to complete a romantic dinner for two. So boys, listen up! If you really want to show your lady how much you care for her, go the extra mile and surprise her with this decadent dessert. I guarantee it will melt her heart (but I would encourage you to practise making this at least once before the special day).

These puddings are just cooked enough to form an outer crust, and inside the pudding is warm, luxurious chocolate goodness... all gooey and oozey.. Mmmmm...

This recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay and can be prepared ahead of time - simply keep it in the fridge and put it in the oven when you're ready. Although Mr Ramsay is not my favourite celebrity chef, I must say that this is an excellent recipe. I think this is also a recipe that one could be creative with and come up with some interesting variations. For example, you could add a splash of liquer such as Baileys, or maybe some orange zest.

Ingredients

50 g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease

2 tsp cocoa powder

50 g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/3 c caster sugar

1/3 c plain flour

To serve - icing sugar, vanilla ice cream and strawberries (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius.

2. Butter 2 dariol moulds/ramekins (I used 100ml capacity dariol moulds) and then place in fridge for 5 minutes. Remove then butter a second time, this time using a pastry brush and brushing upwards and outwards. Dust liberally with cocoa powder and shake out any excess.

3. Slowly melt the chocolate and butter in a small bowl set over a pan of hot water, then take off the heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

4. Using an electric whisk, whisk the egg, whole egg and sugar until pale and thick, then incorporate the chocolate mixture.

5. Sift the flour over the mixture and gently fold in.

6. Divide the mixture between the ramekins/moulds leaving a 1cm space at the top for the mixture to rise. Bake for 10 minutes, or until a crust forms on top of the fondant.

7. Turn the fondants out onto plates and dust with icing sugar. Serve with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and a few berries.

Tips

• If you can't find dariol moulds, use ramekins instead. Ramekins are available in a variety of sizes, but I think 100ml (as I used) makes a perfect size.
• This recipe makes enough to fill two 150 ml moulds/ramekins if you wish, but be sure to cook for a little longer in this case - about 12 minutes.
   

Enjoy :)

Ladybird x

Cherry & Cream Cheese Strudel

There is something about desserts using morello cherries that makes me go weak at the knees - although slightly sour, when combined with a few simple ingredients they are little superstars! I bought a jar of morello cherries during the week and thought it was the perfect opportunity to use a recipe I had bookmarked online a little while ago.

This Hungarian recipe combines morello cherries, cream cheese, ricotta, flaky pastry and crunchy toasted almonds... delicious!

I was unable to find large sheets of filo pastry like the ones used in the video, so I used a smaller square size. Because of this, I had enough cheese filling and cherries for two strudel rolls.

The recipe and instructional video can be found here. If you are thinking of trying this recipe out, here are a few tips:

• I used 3 level tablespoons of caster sugar as I felt the cheese mixture needed it in order to balance the sourness of the cherries.
• This recipe calls for clarified butter (or 'ghee'). You can make this yourself easily- just melt the butter and let the white sediment settle. The clear yellow liquid is the clarified part, so just dip your pastry brush into this and use as required.
• This strudel is best made close to serving time to ensure the pastry remains crispy - over time it will absorb the moisture of the cherry and cheese mixture.
  

Along with a dollop of double cream, this strudel is an excellent choice for a special morning/afternoon tea at home. May you go weak at the knees over cherries!

Enjoy :)

Ladybird x

Passionfruit Melting Moments

There are some fruits that are quintessentially summery, and passionfruit is definitely one of them. I saw some beautiful passionfruit in a fruit and veg shop this morning, and thought I'd try making some passionfuit melting moments. The idea came from seeing a fellow blogger's entry a little while back.

So, here is my recipe for easy and failproof passionfruit melting moments. The smell of fresh cookies and the heavenly scent of passionfruit makes these hard to resist. You bite through the crumbly cookie and taste the buttery and slight zingy flavour of the passionfruit filling as it oozes out inbetween- superb!

Melting moment biscuits
125 g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 c icing sugar
1 c plain flour
1/6 c cornflour

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius and line a large tray with baking paper.
2. Sift plain flour and cornflour and set aside.
3. Cream butter, icing sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly add sifted flours to butter mixture. Beat on slow speed until a soft dough forms and just combined.

5. Roll small, heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on tray.

6. Slightly flatten with the heel of your palm, or with a flat object.

7. Gently press fork down onto biscuits to flatten a little further.

8. Bake for 15 mins. Biscuits should be pale in colour and slightly golden on the bottom.

9. Remove from oven and allow to sit on tray for 5 mins. Then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Passionfruit butter filling
60 g unsalted butter
3/4 c icing sugar
few teaspoons passionfruit pulp

1. Beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Stir though pulp one teaspoon at a time until the filling is a good consistency. Adding it gradually is the best way to avoid letting it become too runny.
3. Stick biscuits together with a small amount of filling between each.

The above recipes should make around 12 complete melting moments. Store them straight away in an airtight container, and enjoy!

Ladybird x

Eating out (at home)

There's no disputing the fact that a home-cooked meal is a lovely one. But a home-cooked meal made by others in your home is even better! You can sit back and relax with your glass of wine with the comfort of knowing you don't have to drive anywhere (or handle a knife), and give only the occasional direction on where to find something or how to get something working. And if someone else is cooking, you will usually end up eating something you wouldn't normally make yourself.. so in a way it's like eating out in the comfort of your own home!

Mr Ladybird and I had the pleasure of such an experience recently when my brother and his girlfriend visited Sydney. They treated us to a delicious home cooked meal of Pumpkin, Sage and Ricotta Lasagne, followed by Maple Syrup Roast Peaches with Coconut Crumble.

The lasagne was simple and delicious, and it made me think how well the flavours of pumpkin and sage complement each other. Note to self - must add sage to balcony herb garden!

To get the recipe, click here.

My brother's girlfriend, Amber, whipped up these succulent peaches with a crunchy coconut topping in no time. Such a talented little lady...

To check out the recipe for this easy and yummy summer dessert, click here.

And we enjoyed it all with a wonderful Printhie 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from Orange. I would highly recommend this wine... It also turns out that Amber is from Orange, so that was a nice coincidence :)

On a side note, I want to let you all know that Amber will at long last be starting her own blog soon, called My Button Cake. Stay tuned...

Ladybird x

Quick Mud Chocolate Cupcakes

I flew out  to Brisbane after work yesterday to see my family over the weekend, so on Thursday night I decided to whip up a few cupcakes to bring with me. They were also the perfect opportunity to use my ladybird toppers that I had been saving for a special occasion. My dad is known to love a good cupcake with his morning tea, so I was hoping he'd like these...

When I first read this recipe from Women's Weekly  I thought it was very strange that the chocolate was melted with water. Surely that should be a cardinal sin of baking?! But it worked, and it was a very quick and easy recipe. The below recipe makes 12 cupcakes which you can top with your favourite chocolate icing.

Cupcakes
Ingredients
60g dark cooking chocolate
2/3 c. water
90g softened unsalted butter
1 c. firmly packed soft brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 c. self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 c. almond meal

Method
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.
2. Put water and broken up chocolate and microwave on low heat in a medium bowl, stirring intermittently until melted and as smooth as you can. It will not combine perfectly - but don't worry.
2. Cream butter and sugar, then mix in eggs.
3. Stir in sifted flour, cocoa powder, almond meal and warm chocolate mixture.
4. Divide mixture between 12 cupcake liners and bake for 25 mins.
5. Stand cakes for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.

Here an adapted recipe for the ganache I used. I like a semi-sweet ganache, so I mixed dark and milk chocolate.

Chocolate Ganache Icing
Ingredients
1/2 c. cream
90g milk chocolate
110g dark chocolate

Method
1. In a small saucepan, bring cream to boil then remove from heat.
2. Add broken up chocolate and stir until smooth.
3. Allow mixture to cool (refrigerate for 30 mins if necessary), then whisk until a good texture for icing your cake/cupcakes.

The cupcakes went down a treat :) The cake itself was rich and moist, and quite light. Combined with the ganache, the flavour reminded me a lot of the Sara Lee chocolate cake! Mum used to buy the Sara Lee cake sometimes when we were young, and in those days the cake was a bit smaller and she would divide it with precision among the 8 of us to avoid family arguments over dessert.. The slices were about a quarter the size of a cupcake and we would savour every delicious last crumb! :)

Love,
Ladybird x

Chaval Kheer (Creamy Rice Pudding)

Kheer comes from the Sanskrit word 'Ksira' meaning condensed milk. It is thought to be the world's oldest form of rice pudding. In fact, it is thought that the British came up with their version of rice pudding during their conquest of the subcontinent! At any rate, I adore making this dessert. Although it does take a bit of time to condense the milk by hand, I find there's something very therapeutic about all that stirring :)

Every region of India has their own take on kheer and so there are countless varieties of this heavenly Indian dessert. The basic ingredients are whole milk and sugar, then there is usually a grain. If it isn't rice, it might be whole wheat or vermicelli. Flavouring ingredients can include spices such as cardamom and saffron and it is often adorned with sultanas, nuts and sometimes even a little edible silver - who would have thought it would be possible to eat bling!

For me though, I have always thought that kheer is a very personal experience. Recipes and preferences really do differ from household to household. So, I'd like to share my recipe with you. It's very simple, but hard to resist...

Ingredients

2L fresh whole milk
Slightly less than 1/2 cup aborio rice
5 green cardamom pods
1/4 cup sultanas
3/4 - 1 cup white sugar, depending on your preferred level of sweetness.
2 tbsp pistachios, shelled and unsalted

Method

1. Wash and drain the rice in a sieve. Set aside.
2. Tap the cardamom pods open slightly.
3. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan and add the cardamom pods. Stirring constantly, bring the milk to the boil over moderately high heat.

4. Reduce the heat, add the rice and stirring attentively, gently boil for 25 to 30 mins.
5. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for another 10 to 15 mins stirring constantly with a smooth, sweeping action.
6. Remove from heat and remove and discard cardamom pods. Stir in sugar, followed by sultanas. The sultanas will plump up as they absorb the milk.
7. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate for several hours.
8. Top with shaved or chopped pistachios and serve.

Tips

• Kheer can be served cold or warm, the choice is yours!
• Kheer should be of a just drinkable consistency. If it is to thick, you can always add more milk later to thin it.
• If you're thinking.. "Arborio rice is not very Indian" - you're absolutely right, it's not! But it makes for a very creamy result ;)
• I find that organic milk makes excellent kheer, but do buy the homogenised stuff.
• Don't worry about the skin that forms on the top while you are reducing the milk, you can skim it off once the kheer cools.
  

Namaste, dear readers!



Ladybird x

Flourless chocolate cake

Sometimes only a good flourless chocolate cake will do on a weekend, and this one is very simple and oh so decadent... Perfect served warm with raspberries and cream.

It was also a good way to use up some eggs and leftover almond meal!

Ingredients
250 dark cooking chocolate
150g butter
155g caster sugar
100g almond meal
5 eggs, separated
icing sugar (for dusting)

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and butter and flour a 20cm round springform tin. I also like to cover the base with a circular cutout of of baking paper.
2. Stirring occasionally, melt the chocolate, butter and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water.
3. Remove form heat and stir to combine. Then stir in ground almonds, and mix in egg yolks one at a time.
4. Beat egg whites until stiff and peaky, then stir a couple of spoonfuls into chocolate mixture. Then fold remainder of eggwhites through with care.
5. Put mixture into prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes.
The time, however, will depend on your oven, so make sure you do a skewer test in the centre of the cake to check that it is cooked through. If it doesn't come out 100% clean don't worry - at least you know it will be moist inside!
6. So that the cake does not collapse after baking, turn the oven off and leave the cake in the oven with the door open for 5-10 minutes, then remove to cool.

I was delighted with how the cake turned out because last time I made it, it sank quite a bit in the middle - but not this time! I think leaving the cake in oven with the door open for a few minutes made a big difference :)

I don't think flourless chocolate cakes are supposed to look perfect, but it's nice not to have it go *flop* and look like a crater...

It was nice and moist on the inside too, without being dry or grainy as flourless chocolate cakes can be sometimes.

So all in all a successful evening's baking. Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Ladybird :)

Crunchy top banana muffins

I have a small food snobbery confession to make - I don't really like spotty, overripe bananas... Ever since I was young, I've never been able to eat bananas that look like this. I used to always ignore them in the fruit basket in the hope that someone else would take pity and consume the really ripe bananas so that I didn't have to.

That was before I discovered baking as a young girl! I mean, I still dislike spotty bananas, but they are also seen as an opportunity through a baker's eyes. Banana bread, banana cake, banana muffins - the list is endless :)

I made these muffins very early this morning and they were delicious. The crunch of the topping before you bite into the soft and moist muffin below - yum! I also really love that these muffins contain linseeds. Linseeds are very good for you, but are rarely used in baking recipes. My crunchy top muffins are a great breakfast on the run, or they'd make a nice morning/afternoon tea :)


So here's the recipe!

Ingredients
(For the muffin)
125g plain flour
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
50 ml milk
50 ml vegetable oil
2 large ripe bananas, roughly mashed
(For the topping)
1 tbsp linseeds
15 g cold butter cut up
40g demerara sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp water

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Start on the muffin topping by giving the linseeds a good bash in the mortar and pestle to break them up a bit. Continuing on the topping prep, combine the SR flour and butter in a small bowl and rub together with your fingers to produce fine breadcrumbs. Add the demerara sugar, cinnamon and linseeds, then stir in the water and lightly combine.

Now the muffins - sieve the plain flour, brown sugar and baking powder into a bowl and make a well in the centre. In another bowl whisk together the egg, oil and milk with a fork. Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry muffin ingredients. Stir together. Stir in mashed bananas until just combined, don't mix too much.

Divide mixture among 6 muffin cases, sprinkle the muffin topping over each. Bake in oven for approximately 25-30 minutes - you may wish to do a skewer test in the middle of a muffin to check they're cooked before them removing from the oven.


Have a great day, everyone!

Ladybird x

Roast beetroot & walnut salad

A couple of years ago I received a very panicked phone call from Mr Ladybird who was overseas at the time. He wanted to know whether or not he should go to the doctor because he was very alarmed to see that, well... his "fluids" were very unusually coloured. He thought he might be very sick. After initial concern, I paused and asked, "What did you eat for lunch?" The answer - "Beetroot". My reply: (sigh) "I think you're going to be fine, sweetheart..."

Afer this emotionally scarring experience, Mr Ladybird still loves beetroot and has been asking me to make a beetroot salad for a long time... so today he got his wish! This salad made for a delicious and colourful dinner this evening :)

Ingredients
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
80 ml (1/3 cup) walnut oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp dijon mustard
12 french shallots
12 garlic cloves
6 medium betroot, topped and cleaned well
1 tbsp vegetable oil
70g baby betroot leaves (or rocket in its absence)
50g (1/2 cup) whole walnuts, dry toasted

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius.
2. In small bowl whisk together red wine vinegar, walnut oil, crushed garlic, dijon mustard and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
3. Place beetroot, whole shallots and whole garlic cloves (i.e. skins on) and veg. oil in oven proof dish.
4. After around half an hour, remove the shallots and garlic cloves - they should be soft and the skins should be starting to peel away (if not, leave in a little longer).
5. Continue cooking betroot in oven until tender when pierced with a skewer - probably about an hour since the dish first went in.
6. Allow the beetroot to cool slightly. Meanwhile, slip the shallots and garlic from their skin.
7. Peel skin off beetroot (or leave it on if you are feeling particularly health conscious), then cut into wedges.
8. Toss together vegetables with dressing and allow to cool to room temperature.
9. In a large bowl, gently combine vegetables and dressing with walnuts and rocket.
10. Arrange on large platter, and enjoy!

Tip
The cooked beetroot will stain your chopping board, so it's a good idea to cut them on a plate which you can then put in the dishwasher ;)

Interesting beetroot facts

• Did you know that the ancient Romans considered beetroots an aphrodisiac? In fact, I read tonight that it is rich in the mineral boron which is important in the production of human sex hormones - so the Romans were probably onto something there...
  
• Also, beetroot contains betaine, a substance that relaxes the mind and is used to treat depression. It also contains trytophan (also found in chocolate!) which contributes to a sense of well being... hurrah!
  

Mangoes & Cream Ice Cream

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!!! Oh yes we do, especially if it involves mangoes... I am loving the mangoes available right now. They are so decadent and summery, and I've wanted to make my own ice cream for ages, so yesterday I finally got the chance :)

I bought a Sunbeam 'Snowy' on Saturday and decided to christen it yesterday using a recipe I saw on Not Quite Nigella's blog a while ago. After 25 minutes of churning the mixture had thickened but was too runny to be softserve, so I scooped it out into a container and popped it in the freezer overnight. I took it out this evening and it was well frozen, so I put it in the fridge for about 15 minutes to allow it to soften a little.

Snowy in action

I served it up using the ice cream scoop that came with the Snowy (very handy!) in martini glasses for a little 'posh factor' - another thing I've been wanting to do for ages! Thanks for the recipe, NQN (a.k.a Lorraine)! To check out the recipe, click here.

The scent was delectable and the texture was creamy but a lot denser than commercial ice-cream. The other great thing about this ice cream is that it is egg free - perfect for when my hubby's family are visiting.

Am definitely looking forward to making more ice cream in the summer months! :)

By the way, an interesting fact for you that might help when making frozen desserts like ice cream...

Did you know that cold temperatures numb the tastebuds? That's why frozen ice cream or yoghurt tastes sweeter when it's melted. So when you're making ice-cream and you want to make sure the level is sweetness is right for you before you churn and freeze it, just remember - having it on the sweeter side is fine because when you eat it frozen it won't taste as sweet.

Ladybird x

White Chocolate and Macadamia Shortbread

I've been browsing biscuit recipes recently to find some easy and delicious treats that I package up nicely can give to friends for Christmas. I liked the look of this recipe because shortbread is a Christmas favourite, and the macadamias and white chocolate give a nice twist.

They were easy to make, and I'm quite happy with the result. The biscuit is not very sweet, but once you put the chocolate on it's just right. Might give them another go during the week :) The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to flatten them a bit more before baking.

To see the recipe, click here.

Speaking of Christmas, don't forget to enter the Christmas giveaway! Only 3 days to go! All you have to do is leave a comment on the giveaway post.

Ladybird x