June 23rd, 2010 by Veronica
My ducks are happy – not only has there been a little bit of sunshine lately, but they’ve discovered the vegetable garden, full of slugs and snails. And unlike my chooks, the ducks don’t do that much damage.
So yay, happy ducks! Ooooh, they’re going to have such tasty babies come springtime. I can’t wait. Who knows, I might even end up with ducks to share!
June 3rd, 2010 by Veronica
Okay, first? The 7pm Project? I understand that you’ve got to keep it simple, that your audience is made up of people putting kids to bed and others, who are just getting home from work and not wanting to think.
HOWEVER.
Coeliac disease? It’s not just an ‘intolerance to gluten’.
No. Coeliac disease is an auto-immune response to gluten, wherein the immune system attacks the gut and intestines.
As the doctor of the show, I suspect the man talking about epi-pens and then mentioning coeliacs in such a flippant tone knows all about that.
But, why on earth perpetuate a myth that coeliacs is just ‘an intolerance’ to the greater public?
Until you’ve had to rub the back of a crying 3yo, while she sits on the toilet sobbing in pain because she accidentally ate something she shouldn’t have, or you’ve suffered with the cramps yourself (disclaimer: I don’t have coeliacs, I mother a child who does), you don’t know just how severe coeliacs is.
Now Amy, she’s so so sensitive. She reacts to glucose syrup, which according to the Coeliac Society is gluten free. I say it’s not gluten free, my daughter is just more sensitive to gluten than your tests are.
And yes, any child who needs an epi-pen has a severe and life threatening allergy and coeliacs is not an allergy (see above re: auto-immune reponse) so we don’t require an epi-pen. And I have friends whose children DO have severe allergies and I feel for them.
Coeliacs won’t kill you instantly like a severe nut allergy would without treatment. However, it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t kill you eventually.
So please, don’t pass off coeliacs in such a flip tone because it makes it harder for me to find acceptance for my daughter in greater society.
***
Now, Masterchef?
God, I am so pissy about yesterday’s episode.
You’ve got 5 hours to put up 4000 canapes, move a little faster people! They were SO FUCKING SLOW. Let’s all just move like we’re in a dreamy state and be all slow and shit.
Oh my god, I’ve not yelled at the TV so much in a long time.
It’s a REAL kitchen, not a pretend one. Work a little fucking faster.
I can’t believe how slow they were. And dreamy.
I wanted to throw things.
Speed it up!
***
And there is my rant.
May 23rd, 2010 by Veronica
So, I’ve been watching Masterchef regularly, as I did last season. I’m interested to see what they’re cooking and blah blah blah. Anyway, they had a challenge, to cook a family dinner for a ‘random’ supermarket chosen family.
Now, considering the families all had spotless houses and various other pretty-ing up bits that led me to believe it was all a load of crap, I ended up screaming at the TV a lot.
You know? When you’re cooking for kids, you don’t get to piss around making the kidlets wait for their meal. Also, cooking a family meal while someone else keeps the kids out from under your feet? Jesus, but I’d love to get that happening around here. Instead the children screech at me from one side of the bench while I juggle hot pans and plates on the other side, well lets just say, cooking in a full tilt commercial kitchen is less stressful than cooking for small children while they screech at you.
Give me an angry chef anyday. Much prefer that to a tantrumming toddler.
Yes. Yes I would.
I thought about it some more and would love to imagine a Masterchef team cooking in my tiny galley kitchen. It’s barely big enough for one person, let along eight of them. And we’ll not mention I would fucking love to see them cook gluten free for a night. Seriously, I would. It’s not that hard, but gosh, it would stretch their resources to have to avoid all wheat and a lot of easy options. No bread, no croutons, no noodles.
It would be interesting, to say the least.
However, the good thing about cooking gluten free, aside from learning to read every single label on food, is that everything really needs to be home cooked, from fresh and simple ingredients. Something I am great at now. It gives a whole new meaning to ‘snacks’ when you can’t just give bread and jam, or sandwiches to tide them over.
Anyway – that’s just me. I’d like to see the masterchef contestants stretched out of their comfort zone a little more.
Plus, I thought while I was complaining about gluten free food and mainstream food shows that I’d share my recipe for Gluten Free Chocolate Cake, which is pretty good.
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake:
Separate 3 eggs, free range is good. I’ve got chooks, so I get eggs from them and I know that they’re happy healthy eggs from healthy chooks. How I know they’re healthy? Well, they’ve pecked all my seedlings of kale to pieces, so they’ve GOT to be healthy, right? Plus, the shells are so hard that cracking them is difficult and my yolks are a lovely bright orange.
Pop the yolks into your mixing bowl with a half a cup of sugar. Leave to beat until they’re thick and lucious looking.
While they’re beating, beat your egg whites until soft peaks form and then add 3-4 teaspoons of sugar and beat until dissolved.
Then melt 200g of dark chocolate with 150ml of cream and 2 tablespoons of butter.
To the thick egg yolk and sugar mix add a cup of almond meal, or hazelnut meal, depending on your taste and the contents of your cupboard. Mix in slowly. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the egg yolks and mix in gently. Add 3/4 of a cup of apple sauce as well. When combined, add gluten free self raising flour until the batter looks thick and creamy.
Yes, I do cook by feel more than by measurements. It generally works out to be about 3/4 of a cup of gluten free flour. I use the Orgran brand and love it, it works well. Almost as well as wheat flour.
Once the batter looks all batter-y and cake like, fold the egg whites into it carefully. Pop it into a well greased 20cm round cake pan. I line the bottom with baking paper as well, but that’s because I don’t have a fan forced oven.
Cook at 160C for around 50-60 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when pressed in the middle. Leave to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, before turning out onto a cooling rack. When cool, ice. I used lemon icing and it was delicious.
Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup of sugar plus an extra 3-4 teaspoons
1 cup of almond or hazelnut meal
200g of cooking chocolate
150ml of cream
2 tablespoons of butter
3/4 cup of apple sauce
3/4 cup of gluten free self raising flour – more or less, depending on how runny your applesauce is. Mine was home made and thick, so I didn’t need as much flour.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks with the sugar until they’re thick and creamy. While they’re beating, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and then add 3-4 teaspoons of sugar. Whisk until the sugar dissolves.
Melt the chocolate with the cream and butter and set aside to cool a little.
When the yolks are creamy and thick, add the almond meal and then the cooled chocolate mixture and apple sauce. Mix gently.
Add the gluten free SR flour and combine. When it looks like cake batter, nice and thick (you may need to add more flour), fold in the egg whites and place the entire mix into a greased and lined 20cm cake pan.
Cook at 160C for 50-60 minutes.
Enjoy!
May 10th, 2010 by Veronica
Herb Marinated Lamb Chops:
I was worried, with all the effort I went to, that no one would eat them. It’s murphy’s law with kids though, the more time and energy expended, the less they eat.
However, I needn’t have worried. They were delicious and if the kids didn’t eat any more than normal, I’m not fussed because they did eat some. Isaac was more impressed with the cooked silverbeet to be honest. Obviously he’s his father’s son, because it took until I started growing my own silverbeet for me to be able to eat the bloody stuff. I preferred English spinach any day of the week. And before we start arguing, yes, they do taste different.
I marinated my lamb chops for around an hour, if I was more organised, I would have marinated them for 24 hours. But I’m not, so I didn’t. Organisation isn’t my strong point. I have my internet stuff organised perfectly and I can generally find what I’m looking for, but remembering to plan ahead for dinner? Nope, not something I’m good at.
Now, the all important Marinade – because I’m fairly sure you all know how to cook roasted potatoes and lamb chops.
In a snap lock bag combine:
3 cloves of garlic chopped finely, NOT crushed
half an onion, very finely diced
2-3 tips of fresh oregano, finely chopped
a spring onion, finely chopped
5-6 chives, finely chopped
a small handful of parsley, finely chopped
5-6 mint tips, finely chopped
juice from 3/4 of a lemon
5-6 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt, more if you like things saltier
1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
Add the lamb chops and mix to make sure they’re entirely covered with marinade. Squeeze the snaplock bag to remove as much air as possible before sealing. Set aside in the fridge for as long as you can bear.
Trust me, it’s delicious.
If you don’t have the herbs I did, experiment with what you’ve got. I’m lucky enough to have fresh herbs in the garden all year around. Previously, when I was living in rented properties, I used to grow all my herbs in window boxes. So worth it.
April 22nd, 2010 by Veronica
I love jam. Absolutely love it.
Also, I get a little bit obsessive about things and I tend to, once I start, make an awful lot of something. I mean, currently, I’ve got 20 jars of various things I’ve made in the bottom of my cupboard. I probably don’t need to make any more, but I’m getting twitchy at the amount of cooking I’ve not been doing. Cooking dinner for kidlets doesn’t count.
So, strawberry jam. Jam isn’t nearly as difficult as people would have you believe. In fact, jam is probably the simplest thing ever to make.
Ingredients
equal amounts of fruit and sugar.
See? EASY.
If you’re using soft fruits like strawberries, I’d also add the juice from one lemon, to help with the setting.
Chop the strawberries up and put them into a pot with the lemon juice and sugar. Stir over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Let it simmer until it starts to look thicker and jammy like. I then take a bamix to it to smooth it out, but some people like chunks, so that’s your personal choice.
Once it’s cooked, pour it into hot sterilised jars (hot soapy water and then 5 minutes in the oven works for me) and do the lids up tightly. I use the ‘pop top’ lids, because they will reseal as the jam cools, leaving you with perfectly sealed and sterile jars.
Then you can serve it on pancakes, or whatever takes your fancy.
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