Sweet sticky pork meatball and veggies rice

That's what we had for dinner tonight and judging how dinner time was quiet I believe I have won the seal of approval of my boys.

So if you feel like having something sweet and sticky for dinner as well here is the recipe:
For the pork meatballs:
500g of pork mince
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1/2 brown onion
1 egg
2 tbsp of cornflour

Mix all the ingredients together, form medium sized balls (or the size that you feel you will want to eat), place them on a plate and put them in the fridge for about 30 minutes. All the recipes I have found deep fry the meatballs and then place in the marinade. We don't deep dry in our house so I pan fried them until golden brown and then placed them in the oven. Keep the pan aside for the sauce.

For the sauce:
1 Tbsp of runny honey
1 tsp of cornflour
1 cup of hot water
1 Tbsp of Terriyaki sauce (soy sauce will do if you don't have it)

Mix all the ingredients together in a jug and make sure everything is well mixed. Place it in the pan used for to fry the meatballs, bring to a boil and simmer on very low heat until it become sticky and thick.
Take the meatballs out of the oven and put them in the pan to coat them with the sticky sauce. At this stage you could even through a few sesame seeds if you want.

I hope you enjoy those as well as we did. I made a veggies rice with cashew nuts to go with it. It was very filling and delicious.

Chewy Peanut Butter, Choc Chip, Banana and Almonds cookies

Ok I admit that seems like a lot of ingredients but they taste very nice and are sort of healthy. I have found the recipe on the Healthy Food Guide website: http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/recipes/2010/august/chewy-peanut-butter-and-chocolate-cookies and I had some bananas lying around so I decided to add one to the biscuits and reduce the sugar. So here it is:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 85g dark chocolate, chopped in chunks
• 1 mashed banana
• A handful of almonds, cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine peanut butter, egg, sugar and baking soda, the almonds and the banana in a bowl. Mix well. Add chocolate. Stir to combine.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Using hands, shape teaspoonfuls of mixture in balls and place on tray about 5cm apart.Now that's where the execution is different if you are using my variation. The mixture will be too wet to roll the cookies into balls so use a spoon.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned on top. Allow to sit on tray for a few minutes in oven, before removing to cool.

Jerk Chicken

Since I have started posting savoury recipes I have been really exciteda bout trying new flavours. One thing I have always heard of but never tasted was Jerk Chicken and I happened to have some chicken on hand for Thursday night dinner.
I made the marinade the night before and let the chicken "sleep" in it overnight.
I have found the recipe on this website: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/jerk_chicken/ and made a few changes. First change I made, I divided the recipe by 2 since I only had 3 thighs.

• 1/2 cup malt vinegar (or white vinegar)
• 2 Tbsp dark rum , I used Vanilla Exctract
• 2 Scotch bonnet peppers (or habaneros), with seeds, chopped, I used a whole red pepper
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 4 green onion tops, chopped
• 1 Tbsp dried thyme or 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 4 teaspoons ground allspice
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons molasses, I only had Treacle at home and it seemed to have worked with it.

• 1 (5 or 6 pound) roasting chicken, cut in half, lengthwise
• 1/2 cup lime juice,
• Salt and pepper

Place all the marinade ingredients in a food processor and pulse to a smooth paste.

Place the chicken in a freezer bag and cover with the marinade. Close it and shake it a little to make sure the marinade coats all the chicken. Leave in the bottom of the fridge overnight.

The King of the BBQ was once again on the job and made a great job of it. It tasted smokey and sweet. It was just delicious. Definitely a recipe that will be made and re- made this Summer.
I made this one with a mixed veggies and cashew nuts rice and grilled asparagus. 

Caramelised pineapple and homemade ice cream (choc sauce optional)

I bought a whole pineapple a couple of days ago but to encourage my son to eat more fresh fruit. When I tasted the fruit, it was very blend, not sweet and juicy as you would expect. I made fruit kebabs with some of it

and tonight I decided to caramelize the rest with a sugar syrup (made out of 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and a little water). I served it with some homemade low fat ice cream which is just a tin of Light Evaporated Milk whisked with icing sugar and vanilla extract until nice and think and put in the freezer until needed.
My husband wanted some chocolate sauce so I just microwave some with a little milk (maybe not enough, it was quite a thick sauce) and crushed walnuts.

Italian inspired dinner

Tonight we had Italian sausages for dinner. The weather was beautiful so my husband, who happens to be great at BBQ, decided to grill them on our charcoal BBQ... and did he do a great job!!!
I was in charge of the accompaniments: smashed potatoes with dried tomatoes and toasted pine nuts salad.

It was a pretty simple dinner but since I have decided to post more often I will be posting the simple, affordable food we regularly have at home. The other thing that motivated me to post this particular dinner was that for once in quite a long time, my little darling boy ate with not one word of protest and did not spill a bit of his food. So I guess that must have been good.

To make the smashed potatoes:
Preheat the oven to 200 DegreeC. Line a sheet pan with baking paper and lightly spray with oil.
Boil some water with salt or stock (none for us). Once it is boiling, add the potatoes (whole). Once fully cooked through (pierce it with a fork and when lifted up the potato should slide down the fork). Drain them and place them on your prepared sheet pan. Spray with a little more oil, sprinkle with herbs and salt (if using). Bake them in the oven until golden brown. They will be crunchy on the outside and mashed potato like on the inside.
I also made some caramelised onions just by pan frying one brown onion with a teaspoon of brown sugar and a splash of white vinegar. I added a little water to make sure they would reduce enough.
The sauce for the potatoes was just plain low fat yoghurt with green onions picked from my garden and a little sprinkle of salt (I knew my son didn't like that yoghurt so we indulged in a little salt).

I am sorry I cannot give the secret of delicious BBQd sausages as I do not know it myself and the expert is probably not ready to share it either.

Moroccan inspired Beef Meat balls

Last night we had a nice homemade Mexican inspired Chilli con Carne and I had a lot of beef mince left that I hadn't cooked. I prepared some meatballs with no specific seasoning so we could see what the inspiration of the day was. I just finely diced some 2 brown onions, 2 cloves of garlic, and some dried Mixed Herbs. I shaped them into balls and left them covered in the fridge overnight.

Tonight I made the dish.
Ingredients:
Tomatoes (I used 3 fresh ones)- and only if you want to make the sauce from scratch, otherwise half a tin of tomatoes in their juices will do the trick.
1 teaspoon of beef stock
1 cup of water (just boiled or hot)
Special blend of spices called "Arabic seven spices" which has: ginger, Mahlabi, black pepper, pimento, cassia, cloves, nutmeg, coriander and cardamon. (see note).
4 dried apricots, cut in smallish cubes
1 1/2 cup of cooked couscous (prepared according the instructions on the package or like I do, however you want as long as it taste good)
A handful of almonds and pine nuts

Before boiling the tomatoes, make a little cross incision at the bottom of each ones and prepared a cold bath (just water and ice cube) to submerge them straight after boiling to stop them from cooking too much.
Peel, process to a smooth sauce and pass them through a sieve before cooking the tomato sauce with a teaspoon of beef stock, a cup of water (boiled), the spices and the dried apricots.

Pan fry the meatballs, just to get them golden brown on the outside. Add the sauce and place in the oven for about 40 minutes to fully cook.

Cut (or smash) the almonds and mix them along with the pine nuts to the cooked couscous.

Once the meat is fully cooked serve with the couscous.

Note:
You will notice that I don't add any salt to my savoury recipes. On the advise of my midwife I cook everything with no added salt so my son can eat the same meals as we do. My husband and I just season to taste on our plates, although more times than not we don't add anymore. I try to get most of the flavor and seasoning from the Herbs and Spices I use.
The Arabic Seven Spice- to be quite honest the dominant flavor was the cinnamon. I have made similar dishes in the past and I only used Cinnamon, Ginger, Paprika, and Nutmeg. The combination of spices is really up to your taste, hence why I put the name of the recipe as Moroccan "inspired" beef meat balls. 
My son, who has decided to go on a special diet a few days ago (exclusively bread and cheese), cleared his plate (2 tablespoons of couscous and 4 meatballs). For a 16 months old I would say that is a good effort.

Hope you enjoy this recipe :) Please do not hesitate to send me the variations you have tried.

Baguette with no Bread Maker

If you were in Auckland today, you would have seen that the weather was absolutely gorgeous and for a day it really felt like Summer was here (again). My husband and I talked about having a BBQ all day. He got us some wonderful garlic and honey marinated steaks from our local butcher and I was in charge of the rest. At first I wasn't sure what I should make so I thought "Bread".

Ingredients:
2 cups of warm water
2 tsp of brown sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 and 1/4 tsp of active dried yeast
2 and half tsp of olive oil
2 and half cup of self raising flour
Some cornmeal for the baking sheet and the top of the bread
A little bit of milk to brush the bread

Preheat your oven to 200 Degree C.

Add the brown sugar, salt and yeast to the warm water, stir a little and leave in a warm place to "bubble". I put mine on my window seal in the sun so it really didn't take that long at all.

Put the flour into a large bowl, add the olive oil and then the above mixture. Mix everything well. On the lightly floured bench work the dough. It should not stick to the bench anymore. Make a ball and place it in a bowl sprayed with oil. Cover with a plastic wrap slightly covered with oil as well, place it in a warm place and let it rise for about 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

Shape it in a log, make some cuts on the top (like in a store bought baguette).

Prepare the baking sheet by coating it with cornmeal. Place the bread on it and loosely cover with plastic wrap covered with oil. Let it rise again.

Brush with the milk and sprinkle some more cornmeal over the bread. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until the bread is golden brown. I find with bread that you know when it's cooked because your whole house (mine being very small) smells like freshly baked bread.

We ate half of it for dinner despite having some couscous to go with our steaks.
I also find that there is something very therapeutic about doing your bread yourself as opposed to the bread maker (although sometimes I could let technology take over and enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the sun :))

Potato crust quiche

While browsing the Net for ideas, I came across this blog: www.fortheloveofcooking.blogspot.com. There are some amazing recipes there. I hadn't defrosted anything for dinner tonight but I had fresh asparagus (they are delicious at the moment) and all the other ingredients for a nice quiche. At the same time, my son is going through a phase where he would only eat cheese and English muffins. I needed to get him to eat something else. So here is my version of Pam's potato crust quiche.

5 new potatoes (the ones I had were quite small) sliced thinly (I used my mandolin)
Homemade caramelized onions
1 fresh tomato
About 10 asparagus
1 ham steak (diced)
3 eggs
1 cup of milk ( I used Soy Milk)
1 cup of grated cheese (whatever you have in the fridge)
1 handful of Parmesan

Preheat the oven to about 200 Degree C. Spray of pan with oil and arrange the potato slices to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Make sure they overlap.Bake for about 10 minutes. Take them out and set them aside.

Layer the onions, asparagus and ham. Mix the eggs and milk in a bowl and pour over the filling.

Mix the 2 cheeses (this way you will be sure to have an equal amount spread over the quiche). Scatter over the quiche.

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. Leave to cool.

Notes: I have made mine in my pie dish so you can't see the potato crust on the photos. Next time I will make it a Pirex dish and upload the pics.
We ate it warm and because there was fresh tomato in it, the filling was a bit watery. If you can wait until it cools down or even the next day it tastes absolutely perfect. We just had it for lunch and the flavours had infused very well.
We had ours with a salad of rocket, red capsicum and pine nuts and steamed asparagus. Yum!