Fruity Noughat slice, an economical fruit and nut biscuit slice

Fruity Noughat Slice

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At this time of year, during the lead up to Christmas when we are making our Fruit cakes, Plum puddings, and Mince pies, this slice is an economical way of using up the leftover packets of mixed dried fruit and nuts. It is also just a quick slice recipe to have in your repertoire in case visitors pop in. It takes no time at all to throw together, and the ingredients can be varied depending on what you have in  your pantry. My Mum's generation liked to ice everything, and I still like to as well, however this slice can stand alone without the icing. Another shortcut when in a hurry.

The recipe is based on an original of my Mum's, with the rolled oats and golden syrup or honey added, a take from our friend Paul's recipe. I have reduced the amount of sugar in the interest of self preservation, however if you omit the golden syrup, you could use 3/4 of a cup of sugar or leave it as it is. Mixed fruit is a sweetener in itself. 

Just follow this recipe and I promise it will be great. Another vintage style recipe that works beautifully.

Ingredients:

½ cup white or brown sugar

1 tablespoon golden syrup or honey

1 cup SR flour

1 cup of mixed dried fruit and nuts. Various mixed dried fruits, chopped dates, sultanas, cherries and/or mixed nuts (pecans, walnuts) up to a cup.

125g butter, melted

1 beaten egg

1 cup coconut (dessicated or shredded)

1 cup rolled oats

1 lemon

Icing sugar

Mix together the sugar, coconut, flour, oats, fruit and nuts. Add beaten egg, golden syrup and melted butter.  Mix well.

Press into a greased lamington tin.

Bake in a moderate oven 25-30 minutes until set.

Allow to cool. Ice with lemon icing, however it is delicious enough to stand alone without icing.

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Best wishes,

Pauline

Moroccan Orange Blossom and Cardamon Yoghurt Cake

Moroccan Orange Blossom and Cardamon Yoghurt Cake

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This is a festive cake combining some favourite aromatic spices, with orange blossom water, and pomegranates. It tastes so amazingly good, that I am tempted to change years of tradition at Christmas, and replace my fruit cake with this light and exotic taste sensation. It even looks like a Christmas cake, with the visual appeal of the pomegranates  and the explosion of taste that they deliver. 

I am babysitting a friends little boy today so this is being written in a bit of a hurry, while he sleeps. Believe me though, this is a cake well worthy trying.

This recipe requires a 2L (25cm)  bundt cake pan and Serves 6.

No electric mixer is required for this recipe just a whisk, a mixing spoon and a large bowl.

Borani Banjan (Layered Afghan Eggplant or Aubergines)

Layered Afghan Eggplant and Aubergines or Borani Banjan

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A rich, luscious eggplant dish, with so many aromatic Middle Eastern flavours, complimented by the combined flavours of Greek yoghurt and garlic salt. Even better, this is an eggplant recipe that Mr. HRK enjoys. When I discovered that I could grow eggplant easily, quite a few eggplant dishes appeared on my menus, perhaps I overdid it a little or maybe even a lot. He was struggling with them, so I gave in and had a break from eggplant for a while. He still struggles a bit with most eggplant dishes, but this is one that he finally really enjoys. Great news, as I love eggplant, and so do most of our friends. This is a winner! I hope you enjoy it as well.

Ingredients:

2 medium Italian eggplants or 4 medium size Japanese eggplants (Enough for 2 layers of cooked eggplant in your baking dish)
3 medium tomatoes, cut in 1/3 inch thick slices
8 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. ground curry powder
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup chopped fresh coriander or cilantro
1 cup Greek-style yoghurt
1 tsp. Garlic salt



The eggplant needs to be sliced and cooked until it is soft. Slice off the ends of your eggplants, and cut them in half lengthwise, not across. Then cut each half across in 1/3 inch thick slices. I fried the eggplant in batches in a medium heat frypan in olive oil, being careful not to burn them or you can cook them under your oven grill as follows.

Turn on your oven grill. Slice off the ends of your eggplants, and cut them in half lengthwise, not across. Then cut each half across in 1/3 inch thick slices.Arrange the eggplant slices on two baking sheets on baking trays, drizzle with 1 tbsp. of the olive oil and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. of salt. Place the baking trays under the grill and cook for a few minutes on each side until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and adjust the oven to  a moderate heat, 180 deg. C, or 375 deg. F.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a medium pan and saute the garlic over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to let it brown. Add the remaining spices, 1 tsp. garlic salt, turmeric, curry, paprika, pepper, and tomato paste. Stir this mixture together and cook for another minute. Add the chicken stock to the pan, stir, and turn the heat to high.When the liquid comes to the boil, turn it down and let it simmer for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

Pour 1/3 of the liquid into a 9x12 inch baking dish, or even a bit smaller, spreading it across the bottom of the dish. Arrange half the eggplant on top of the sauce. Sprinkle half the coriander over the eggplant and then layer the tomato slices evenly on the eggplant.



 Pour on another third of the sauce. Repeat the layering with the remaining eggplant, coriander, and tomatoes. Finish the dish by drizzling the last of the sauce over the vegetables, ensuring that all the vegetables are covered.

Cover the dish tightly with aluminium foil and cookl it in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 5 minutes.

 Final step:

Mix together the Greek yoghurt and garlic salt. Pour the yoghurt sauce over the eggplant and serve with pita or naan bread.

Serves four to six people as a main, or many more as a vegetable dish on the side.

Adapted from a recipe by Zohra Ghilzai.

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It's time for Basil Pesto

Basil pesto

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Preparing to make pesto

An early trip to the farmer's market this morning, despite the rain, and I now a have a whole, fragrant and  luscious sweet basil plant for three dollars. The basil plants in my garden aren't at the stage where I can harvest enough leaves for pesto. Probably because I am drawing on them regularly for other dishes, and they are mostly self seeded, so they are still fairly immature plants. However, I have plenty of flat leaf parsley growing so perhaps a pesto combo of basil and parsley could also be fun.

So basil and homemade pizza are on the menu this weekend. Along with sweet corn, sugar bananas, red paw paw and rough leaf pineapple, also sourced at the markets and grown locally. Mr. HRK loves the fresh pineapple and paw paw.

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Vintage Date Biscuits, my Mother's recipe

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Date Rollettes

Dates have become a standard item in most kitchens, being used for all kinds of exotic Middle Eastern dishes to cakes, breads and  desserts. Whilst I generally buy the Medjool dates, for this recipe I think that some of those are too large for biscuits and the quantity of biscuit mixture won’t stretch very far, unless you double it of course. I used a few smaller Medjool dates, but then converted to the packaged Trident brand, which are smaller and standard in size,  however any brand of commercially available dates will do. 

This is my Mother’s recipe, when Medjool dates weren't readily available, and baking them brought back all sorts of fond memories. The challenge though is converting vintage recipes in Imperial measurements to Metric. There are lots of great websites now that assist with the conversion, however I still use the Imperial measurement on my scales so that the quantities are exact. 4 oz butter can weigh slightly differently to 4 oz sugar.

Biscuits smell amazing when they are cooking and don’t take that long to cook. They will keep for over a week in a covered container, however they will never last that long in my house.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 4 oz butter = 1/2 cup = 113.4g
• 8 oz S.R.Flour = 227g
• 18 dates
• 4 oz sugar = 113g
• 1 egg
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/2 cup milk

Let's cook:

Cream butter and sugar. When well mixed and white in colour, add well beaten egg, then slowly add flour.

Roll a date in a spoonful of mixture. Mould into uniform oblong shapes, or whatever shape you like.

Roll each biscuit into a little milk, and then into desiccated coconut.

Bake in a moderate oven at 180 deg. F. or 375 deg. C. for around 20 minutes depending on the heat of your oven, and until nicely browned. Check their progress after 15 minutes.

An original recipe by Pauline, Happy Retirees Kitchen

Sweet cherry tomato sausage tray bake

Sweet Cherry Tomato Sausage Tray Bake

Thank you Jamie Oliver for the idea to cook another amazing tray bake dish. Using robust herbs like thyme, rosemary and bay leaf, lots of cherry tomatoes, and the best Italian pork sausages you can buy, or any flavoursome sausages really, you end up with an intense combination of caramelised gooey tomato flavours and roasted sausage. Who doesn't love eating sausages?

Ingredients:

2 kg lovely ripe  cherry tomatoes, or mixed colours if possible
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 sprigs fresh bay leaf
1 tablespoon dried oregano, or more if using fresh
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
12 Italian pork sausages
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Let's cook:

Preheat your oven to 190 deg. C. Use a roasting tray large enough to accommodate all of your tomatoes in one snug fitting layer. Put in all the tomatoes, herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages.

Drizzle well with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Toss all the ingredients together, and then move the sausages to the top. Place the tray into the oven for half an hour. After this time, give the tray a shake and turn the sausages over. Put back into the oven for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how sticky and well cooked you like your sausages. The longer you cook the dish, the more caramelised your tomatoes will be. Delicious!

You should have an intense, tomatoey sauce by now. If you think your tomato sauce is a little too thin, lift out the sausages, and place the tray on the stove hotplate and cook it down to the required consistency. When it is quite thick, add the sausages back in. Keep warm in the oven until you are ready to eat.

Check your seasoning and add more salt or pepper.

Serve with crusty bread, mashed potato, rice or polenta. Add a green salad and a glass of wine and you will think you are in heaven.

Jamie says any leftovers, if there are any, should be chopped up the next day, and added to some penne or rigatoni to make a wonderful chunky pasta dish. Great idea!

Best wishes

Pauline

Julia's Chocolate Chip Tray Bake Slice

Chocolate Chip Tray Bake Slice

We drove up to Eungella Dam yesterday to visit Julia and Dave who were staying there for a couple of nights in their caravan. Despite the extremely dry conditions, the Dam was still looking beautiful. An enjoyable excursion to the Eungella Lookout in their 4 wheel drive before lunch, and as they say in the musical, "On a clear day you can see forever." 

Eungella Dam from the Lookout

We had forgotten just how extensive the dam is. On our return journey home we saw magnificent King Orchids growing wild on the cliffs, and a rare Cane fire was glowing in the distance. The cane farmers generally harvest the sugar cane green these days, but it is always a thrill to see a cane fire burning at sunset. It makes me think of Graeme Connor's haunting song, "Cane Fires Burning."

Back to food. We enjoyed a casual lunch of French baguette, wraps and salad, sliced roast lamb, pesto and hummus. Then Julia brought out her delicious chocolate chip slice.What a winner! As delicious as any chocolate caramel slice I have ever tasted, but less complicated, and fewer calories of course. This slice can be assembled in under 30 minutes, cooked for another 30 minutes, and is ready to eat shortly after. I had to bake it this morning, and Neil has given it the seal of approval. Julie is one of the best cooks I know, and always seems to have a culinary surprise up her sleeve. Thanks for sharing the recipe of this little gem Julia.

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup biscuit crumbs (e.g. Nice biscuits)
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup slivered or flaked almonds
1 tin condensed milk (low sugar if preferred)

Lightly grease a slice tin, approx. 18cm x 28cm.

Spread melted butter over base of tin, then spread Nice crumbs, coconut, choc chips, and almonds in even layers.

Then pour over the condensed milk evenly. Bake for 30 minutes on 175 deg. C. Check the slice after 15 minutes as this slice will burn if the oven is too hot. Adjust temperature accordingly.

Allow to cool in the tin, slice into squares, and then store in the refrigerator in a plastic container for up to a week, if it lasts that long.





I find that I enjoy a recipe so much more if it is linked to a special experience. Do you sometimes think of something or someone special when you cook a dish with an experience attached to it?