Cheesecake balls to make friends

What better way is there to make friends than to buy their love and affection through some excellent baking! The other day an email went around that there would be an afternoon tea on Level 4 here at the ACCC and I thought – ‘This is my time to shine’.

I wanted to make something small and easy to eat – nothing too big, nothing that needed spoons, nothing that had complex flavour combinations … because that always makes people a little wary and could leave your baked treat sitting there on its lonesome.

So I thought and I thought and well, who doesn’t like cheesecake?

Baked Cheesecake Balls
500g Cream Cheese
½ cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla

250g dark cooking chocolate
25g copha

Cream together the cream cheese, sugar and 2 eggs with an electric mixer. Add the remaining egg and vanilla and continue mixing until you get a smooth consistence. Pour into a baking tray and bake for 25 minutes at 190 degrees Celsius.

Allow to cool before placing the fridge for 20 minutes to set.

Place the chocolate and copha in a microwavable bowl and heat on medium high for 1 minute. Remove and stir. Repeat this process until the chocolate and copha have melted together. Using a melon baller scoop out balls of cheesecake mix and dip them into the chocolate. Place the chocolate coated balls onto a tray lined with baking paper and when completed transfer them to the fridge to set overnight.

Serve and remember to let people know that you made them, so they will now be your friend.

Shredded Apple and Pear Salad

I let Phillip come grocery shopping with me on the weekend – well it wasn’t really a case of me letting him come, more he was in the car with me on the way home from his brother’s house and it was late on a Sunday afternoon so I wanted to do it before I got home, put my track pants on and couldn’t be bothered getting off the couch.

Allowing Phillip to come shopping with me means that I can not enjoy my shopping experience as; he questions my purchases, steers the trolley haphazardly and picks up more than we need or want to eat for the week. Although he did get caught up playing ‘you’re it’ with some kids in the fruit and veggie sector – this did not keep his attention span long enough and he put way too many apples and pears into the trolley. He also picked up hard pears – I like soft pears and so needed to come up with a way that we could use the pears that didn’t involve eating them whole and breaking my teeth (ok … they weren’t that bad).

I thought that I would make something special for lunch because – a) I already have the dinners planned for the week and b) I just paid an exorbitant amount of money for my weekly parking in the city, so I am reluctant to buy lunch.

Shredded Apple and Pear Salad
1 large apple (grated)
1 large pear (grated)
1 small red onion
2 spring onions
1 bag of watercress
100 grams toasted walnuts or pecans
100 grams Mersey Valley (Original) cheese

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp seeded mustard
salt and pepper

Place the apple, pear, diced red onion, diced spring onions and watercress into a plastic container. Drizzle with lemon juice and toss (this will keep the apple and pear from browning). Take the nuts, cheese and remaining dressing ingredients in separate containers so that they don’t go soggy.

Combine ingredients at work, just prior to eating. You could also add some leftover shredded roast chicken from the night before if you felt so inclined.

Butter Chicken and Spicey Rice

There is an interesting debate occuring in the culinary world about 'short cuts' - real chefs don't use pre-made stock or pre-made sauces. But I am not claiming to be a real chef ... just a home cook, trying to get a quick dinner together after a real hard day of work! But here is the interesting thing I stumbled upon - Jamie Oliver uses Pataks sauces in his 'curry in a hurry' ... so why can't I??

Jamie Oliver is a food genius and with all of his hard work on the 'Food Revolution' - surely he isn't going to give me a bum steer. I'd made a few of his curry recipes from his cook books and I thought that I would give Butter Chicken a go on my own ... and let's just say it was delicious!

Well on my own with the help of Pataks - if you're searching the grocery store for this product here is what is looks like (and some nutritional information to boot): http://www.pataks.ca/products/sauce-butterchicken.asp

Butter Chicken and Spicey Rice

1 jar Patak's Butter Chicken Sauce 500g cubed chicken breast
5cm piece of ginger (grated)
3 cloves of garlic (grated)
1 large brown onion (diced)
1 small red chili (diced)
1 medium sweet potato (cubed)
1/2 a head of cauliflower (broken into flower heads)
1 cup of water
1 tbsp of olive oil
 
1 1/2 cups of basmati rice
1 large brown onion (diced)
1 tsp vegeta
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tbsp of olive oil
1/4 cup of frozen peas
2 cups of water
 
Heat oil in sauce pan and fry off the ginger, garlic, onion and red chili until the onion is translucent (don't let it brown). Add the chicken and make sure that it is sealed before adding the sauce, sweet potato, cauliflower and water. Mix thoughly before reducing the heat to simmer, placing the lid on top and leaving for 25 minutes.
 
In another saucepan, heat the remaining oil and fry off the onion and spices for 5 minutes. Add the rice and fry off dry for another 2 minutes before covering with water, adding the peas and leaving to simmer for 15 minutes (or until all of the water has evaporated and the rice is soft).
 
You can serve the butter chicken and spicey rice with nann, papadums or roti.
 
 

Getting about Town

As many of you will know, I lost my job two weeks ago ... and I was very fortunate to gain a short-term contract with the ACCC, which I started on Monday. This means that I am now located in Civic for work - a hop, skip and a job away from some wonderful cafes that I would like to make the most of now that I am here.

Right now though, I want to talk about 'UrbanFood', which is located at the bottom of our building in NewActon. I've been here on lazy Sunday mornings, with girlfriends for long brunches and multiple coffees and have always found it pleasant. One of my girlfriends who worked at Defence, laughed at the fact that Phillip said that we had to 'struggle' a little now whilst we paid off our mortgage as soon as possible and yet we were out eating a $25 brunch.

Ok - so some may find their prices a little expensive, but it's the city ... everything was expensive in Sydney. And personally, I don't think that $4.50 for my medium soy latte is too much. But there is a big debate in the office as to the quality of the coffee. I don't think it's too bad, but some people say it's terrible.

So the plan is to take in UrbanFood and all it's lunchtime glory next week and let you know about it.

And if you work in the city or at least know Canberra - let me know where you think that I should be going for my morning coffee?

A Spring Veggie Patch

It’s spring … right? So it’s time to get my butt into gear and start planting my spring veggie patch … right?
Well I thought so and I actually did last weekend – and then Canberra being Canberra showed me her bitterly cold side. I hope my little seedling survive the cold snap.
As most of you know, Phillip and I moved into our little house in April – but there wasn’t much point in planting out our veggie patch at the time because we were quickly running into winter (a really, really cold Canberra winter at that). So the other weekend, when Spring said ‘hello’, I was super excited to start our veggie patch. Not to mention that fact that I had just lost my job, and thought that an awesome new career could be a self-sustainable gardener … shame Telstra and AcetewAGL don’t accept fruit and veggies as payment for their bills.

I thought that we would have it easy … when we purchased the property the previous owners had commented about how much they loved gardening and about the veggie patch and fruit trees that already existed. Needless to say, the veggie patch was full of weeds and bricks (nothing was ever going to grow there) and the fruit trees (including a lemon which did not yield any fruit) looked a little (I mean A LOT) dead. So Phillip and I mattocked out all of the wedding and the bricks, lay down newspaper, loosen and new dirt and started planting.

I chose to plant in seedlings of parsley, spring onions and strawberries. I also put my spinach seeds straight into the ground. But chose to grow the tomato seeds, capsicum seeds and been seeds in the shed until they are big enough to plant into the garden. Last night at the supermarket I also picked up zucchini seeds and mixed squash seeds, but I think I will wait a little while before I pot these up (as I think it needs to get a little warmer) – maybe October??

On a side note, we received a lime as a house warming gift and it is looking quiet sorry for itself after the Canberra winter – I’ve tried giving it some seaweed solution, but maybe that was the kiss of death. Any tips for how to bring this lime back from the dead would be greatly appreciated.