Cherry Sago with Coconut Milk & Cinnamon

Jan 112012
 

♫She’s Like the Ocean – Eli Wolfe♫

I love cherry season.  There are cherries everywhere at the moment and I can’t find enough ways to eat them.  I could eat them every day.  This is the perfect combination:  Cherries and sago.  The sourness of the cherries is balanced with a little sugar and the crunch of the cherries balances the smooth, sago balls.

Sago is a starch without much nutrition, so the cherries add a lot of goodness to it!

This is perfect for summer because it is so easy to make and I love watching the dye oozing out of the cherries into the sago and coconut milk.  Millie said that this was the yummiest thing she has ever eaten!  I have adapted this recipe from the amazing cookbook The Cook’s Companion by the Australian cooking guru, Stephanie Alexander.  This huge book is my cooking bible and constant kitchen companion.

Recipe for Cherry Sago

Ingredients

60 grams sago

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup water

30 grams sugar

2 tablespoons agave nectar

1 stick cinnamon

350g cherries

 

Method

  1. Simmer the sago in a saucepan with sugar, coconut milk, water and cinammon, stirring until the sago is transparent.
  2. Add the cherries (you can leave the pips in them for this recipe but be sure that you tell the people eating it and take them out for small children and elderly people) stir well, then cover and simmer for 10 minutes, until the cherries are tender and the juice is pink.
  3. Remove the cinnamon and leave the sago to cool.
  4. When it is cool, serve it in little bowls and garnish with cherries, or even pistachio nuts (yes, I love them!)
*If you don’t have agave nectar, you can add another 20grams sugar.

Enjoy!

Mia xxx

 

 

 January 11, 2012

Mia’s Gluten-Free Lime & Pistachio Meltaways

Jan 092012
 

♫Ocean – John Butler Trio♫

The summer days are blending into each other, a mishmash of days, all similar, sun, sand, good food, friends….  I spoke to a friend the other day and realised I couldn’t be quite sure which day it was, I knew it was somewhere in the middle of the week, maybe Wednesday or Thursday.  As it turns out, it was Friday.

Millie and I have been continuing to make lovely things in the kitchen.  These meltaways are divine.  They are so full of flavour and literally melt in the mouth.  The lime rind is like tiny pieces of candy that pop in your mouth and the sugar coating is perfect.  When I open the container they are stored in, the scent of lime jumps out.  These biscuits are now my favourites.  And Millie’s too.  These cookies use a mixture of cornflour, amaranth and quinoa flour, which I find to be a great mix for biscuits like these.

On one of our walks on the beach, we spent some time collecting shells.  While walking down the track through the dunes towards the ocean, I looked up and was surprised that the ocean was flat and glasslike.  The wind had died down and it was magnificent.   We walked and collected shells.

The most common shells on beaches in Perth are little white ones.  Sometimes at the top of the pointy bit, they have a naturally-formed little hole.  When we were children, we would collect them and thread them onto string to make necklaces.  Our summer days were carefree, barefoot, tangled hair days, with our shell necklaces strung around our necks.  Perfect.  Now I prefer to collect these shells, look at their lovely designs and then leave them on the sand, where they will be washed again and again by the waves, and ground down to the find sand that ices our beaches.

 

 Recipe for Gluten-Free Lime & Pistachio Meltaways

Ingredients

120 grams butter

125 grams castor sugar

zest of 2 limes

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Juice of one lime

40 grams cornstarch

80 grams amaranth flour

80 grams quinoa flour

40 grams pistachio nuts – finely crushed, almost to meal

1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

  1. Cream the butter, castor sugar and lime zest together until it is the mixture is light.
  2. Add the lime juice and mix.
  3. Shell the pistachios and place in boiling water on stove for one minute to blanch.  Put into cold water and peel away the red casings to reveal the bright green nuts.  (this step is really worth taking the few minutes to do).
  4. Place the pistachios in a food processer and grind until the pieces are just bigger than nut meal.  Set aside.
  5. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
  6. Add these to the creamed butter.  Mix until it comes together.
  7. Add the pistachios, vanilla extract and salt and mix some more until it is a dough.
  8. Transfer the dough onto a sheet of baking paper and shape it into a log that is about 2 inches in diameter.
  9. Use the baking paper to tighten the log and wrap it up.
  10. Place the dough in the fridge for at least two hours.
  11. Cut the log into 1/4 inch thick discs.
  12. Place the discs onto a baking tray and bake at 350°F/180°C for about 12 minutes.  Don’t let the biscuits get brown but leave them white.
  13. Cool the biscuits on the tray and smother in powdered sugar when they are still warm.

 

Enjoy!

Mia xxx

 

 January 9, 2012

My Favourite Place & Gado Gado (Gluten-Free)

Jan 042012
 

When it comes to food, the ocean there is always so much to talk about……

Today’s recipe is the wonderful Indonesian dish of Gado Gado, a salad made up of raw and cooked vegetables and eggs, served with a spicy peanut sauce.  In Perth, our closest neighbours are South-East Asia, so we have access to a lot of Asian foods.   Since being a child I have grown accustomed to the fresh flavours, spices and colours of Vietnamese, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Indian foods.  As a result Asian foods are on my menu at least every second night.  The added benefit is that Asian foods naturally contain very little gluten or sugar.

Now, to the ocean.  Yesterday afternoon we spent some time at our favourite local swimming beach.  The weather was beautiful.  Millie is becoming a really good boogie boarder, the only thing I have to do now is keep her closer to the shore.  I remember as a child, the biggest thrill was to be the furthest person out.  There seem to be a line of people in the water, standing shoulder deep and there is always one child vying to go out further.  There’ve been a few shark attacks this summer, so my thinking is that if she stays behind the line, she’ll be safer.  Not that I’m worried about her being attacked by sharks, the risk so slim it is negligible.

My memories of this beach are so fond.  This is my happy place.  Whenever I need to think, sort out something or cry I come down to this beach (luckily only five minutes from home) and walk out onto the rock groin.  This beach has helped me sort out so many things in my life.  It has helped me decide to quit studying law.  It helped me make many other decisions and I’m sure it will help me make many more.  I am very thankful for this beach.  Its pounding waves, foaming spray have kept me sane on many occasions.  It’s also so nice that my childhood playground, is now my daughter’s playground and hopefully in the future, her daughter’s playground.

There is not only nostalgia at this beach, but the cold shock of the Indian Ocean as you dive in, lots of waves to catch and very good views.

Our time on the beach was the calm before the storm.  Two hours later, the winds started and there was thunder and lightning.  Perth really knows how to put on a magnificent summer storm, although we missed most of it, being tucked inside our home.  I’m hoping for a storm this afternoon so that I can photograph it rolling in from the ocean.  I love the way the rain moves accross the ocean, the dark clouds roll in and the lightning strikes white and blue on the horizon.

Recipe for Gado Gado

Ingredients for Salad (enough for two people)

(These are just the ingredients I used but you can basically use any other vegies in your fridge and this dish usually has fried tofu chunks in but I didn’t have any today).

1 egg (boiled and sliced into fine slices)

1 or 2 potatoes (boiled and sliced finely

Green beans

(blanched and chopped into sticks)

1 carrot (cut into julienne slices and blanched)  (I didn’t use one for the salad today)

Chinese cabbage (I used purple cabbage but you can use green) (sliced finely)

1 handful of washed bean sprouts

6 baby heirloom tomatoes, sliced (I added these because I had them, they are not traditional but look and taste great in it)

1 sprig of spring onion (chopped finely for the garnish)

1/2 cucumber (cut into fine slices)

1/2 orange capsicum (cut into fine sticks)

How to Make Salad

  1. Boil the potatoes and the egg.
  2. Blanch the beans then carrots, then cut in julien slices.
  3. Slice the tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, Chinese cabbage aand spring onion (as directed above)
  4. Arrange all the elements on a platter or in a dish, garnish with spring onion.  The salad ingredients can be mixed together with the eggs placed on top, then the garnish.
Ingredients for Spicy Peanut Sauce
1 cup unsalted peanuts
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
4 sprigs of spring onion
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon dark soy
1 1/2 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon chill powder
Juice of one lime
How to Make Peanut Sauce (adapted from allrecipes.com.au)
  1. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan, on high.  Then cook the peanuts for about four minutes.  Discard all of the oil except one tablespoon.
  2. Take the peanuts out of the oil and dry on paper towel.
  3. Place the peanuts in a food processer until they are finely ground.
  4. Grind garlic and spring onion in a mortar and pestle.
  5. Fry in reserved oil for a minute.
  6. Add chilli powder, soy sauce and water.  Bring to a boil and add the ground peanuts.
  7. Simmer the sauce for about ten minutes.
  8. Add lime juice and a little more salt.
  9. When the sauce has cooled, pour it into a jug.
  10. Sauce can be poured over the salad or left in a bowl beside to dip the vegetables into.
I hope you enjoy this light, tasty treat.  Perfect after a trip to the beach.

Enjoy!

Mia xxx

 

 January 4, 2012

The Book Launch

Jan 022012
 

When almost six years of photos, text and work on onehourcraft.com was lost in January with no complete backup, I felt stunned.  Then it occurred to me that it was an opportunity to go in a slightly different direction and while One Hour Craft was still there, it was hard to really move on.

But I have found some posts and photos from onehourcraft.com.  I was so pleased to find all these beautiful photos of friends, family and supporters at the launch of my first book, One Hour Craft at the end of 2009.  It was such a wonderful evening and the culmination of so many hours of work.  So, I’m really happy to have these memories and to still be able to celebrate a wonderful time in my life.

And, with a new book forming in my head, it is good to look back and remember what I did right, what can be improved on and how to take the experience I have and build on it, while moving in a different direction.  It’s also a great time to reflect on the fact that, even if we spend hours alone writing a book, we never do it on our own.  So many people were at my book launch who contributed to many different aspects of the book; my mum who was  a constant source of sewing and other advice, Emma who helped with some of the sewing tutorials, Kate who helped with the clay tutorials and helped to proof read some of the drafts as they to-ed and fro-ed from London to Perth.  Then there was dad, who offered photography help and advice, friends who helped celebrate and my brilliant little helper, Millie, who was constantly by my side bringing me things, and offering her encouragement.  It is good to remember that as I start on a new book, I am not doing it alone.

Also, my book is still available in many bookstores and on several on-line bookstores, if you’re interested.

Thanks to all those who were a part of that journey.  I hope you will come again with me on the journey into the ‘second book’.

 January 2, 2012

Yellow Plum Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing

Jan 012012
 


♫ Happy New Year – ABBA ♫

Happy New Year to you and your family!  I certainly hope that globally and personally 2012  is a fulfilling year.

A lot of the outings I make with Millie are to find beautiful or rare or just gluten-free foods.  My child has been dragged around Asian food stores, farmer’s markets, specialty shops, spice stores and farms since she was born.   I joked with her the other day that she is the only twelve year old who knows what you can make with amaranth flour, kopi manioc and quinoa flour.  I hope she has come to love our food outings just as much as I have.  For me, they’re like fun-filled treasure hunts.

 

A few days ago,  our trip to visit Auntie Eva, one hour north of where  we live (on the coast), became an incidental food outing.  I had forgotten how interesting the drive is.  There are horses and the wonky Australian bush, there are farms, but the best for me are the market gardens with their roadside stores.  These stores are really nothing but tin sheds mostly and they sell produce straight from the farm.  We found so many treasures including mangoes for $1 each, the last of the strawberries for the season and….. these made me smile – yellow plums.  I have never seen these small plums before and they made me smile all day.  Their flavour is a little more tart than our red plums but they are juicy and delicious.

I  made this Plum and Bacon Salad with a Raspberry Vinagrette Dressing for an impromptu little New Years’ Eve meal at my house.  We ate it with grilled free-range chicken and an heirloom tomato salad, followed by strawberries with Greek Yoghurt.  We ate quickly so we could make it to Clancy’s to dance in the New Year with my friend Dilip’s band.  From the crunchy bacon to the sweet raspberry dressing to the juicy sweet tartness of the yellow plums, this salad made a delightful last supper for 2011.

Recipe for Yellow Plum & Bacon Salad with a Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing

Ingredients for Salad

Two large handfuls of baby spinach leaves (or any other flavorsome green)

One handful of purple witlof

4 small plums cut into tiny wedges

4 rashers of bacon, cut into small pieces and cooked until crisp and crunchy

1/4 cup crumbled Fetta Cheese

How to Make Yellow Plum & Bacon Salad

  1. Wash baby spinach leaves and place in a salad bowl.
  2. Wash witlof and place it in bowl.
  3. Cut plums into small wedges and scatter them in the bowl.
  4. Cut bacon rashers into tiny pieces and fry until they are crisp and crunchy.
  5. Scatter bacon pieces in salad bowl.
  6. Break Fetta cheese and scatter in bowl.
  7. Season with cracked pepper and sea salt.

Ingredients for Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Cracked pepper and sea salt to season

How to Make Dressing

  1. In a small bowl whisk together vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.
  2. Whisk in olive oil.
  3. Drizzle on salad.

Enjoy!

Mia xxx

 

 

 January 1, 2012

Gluten-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Dec 282011
 

♫  ‘C’est Le Vent, Betty’ (from Betty Blue 37.2° le matin) – Gabriel Yared  ♫

 

“Mum can we go to the beach yet?”, asked Millie, again and again.

“No it’s too hot, all we’ll get is sunburn and burnt feet from the sand”, I replied, again and again.

Some time later.

“Mum, is it cool enough to go to the beach now?  I think I felt a slight breeze outside”.

 

Before I start to complain about the weather, I have to confess that these cookies may have magical powers to take the blues away.  They really helped to take away my summertime blues today.  Really, I could eat them happily all day every day.  They are a rich, crunchy chocolote on the outside with a moist peanut butter centre.

Today in Perth is hot.  Sweltering hot.  Unable to finish an icecream because it drips all over you, hot.  I really don’t enjoy this weather.  This heat makes you so lethargic and until the sun falls, it is exhausting.  The weather has been so lovely but it seems we are in for a little more heat until the temperatures drop again to beautiful beach-going weather.  When it is this hot, we go to the beach at 7pm and swim until 8pm.  Night swimming is luxurious and beautiful and mysterious.

Usually when it is summer, the last thing I do is bake but I wanted to make these for my great Auntie Eva.  Auntie Eva is my dad’s aunt and is 94 years old.  We’re looking forward to spending some time with her tomorrow.

Back to the cookies, these are incredible.  The challenge with cooking gluten-free is to bake cakes and biscuits that are light and moist.  These cookies are moist and melt in the mouth.  And the flavours of chocolate and peanut butter together – is there anything better?  I’m sure that those of you living in the Northern Hemisphere will enjoy making these more than us, but the pleasure of eating them will be the same.

 

Recipe for Gluten-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

 

Ingredients for Chocolate Dough

1/2 cup Olive oil

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup agave nectar

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (you can buy special mixes for cookies now)

1/3 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Ingredients for Peanut Butter Filling

3/4 cup Natural unsalted peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

How to Make Gluten-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

  1. Mix the wet ingredients for the chocolate dough in a bowl.
  2. Sift in the flour, cacao, baking soda and salt.
  3. Mix until you have a firm-ish dough.
  4. (Make the filling) Mix together peanut butter, sugar, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl.  It should be a wet dough.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°c.
  6. Lining and baking tray with baking paper.
  7. Scoop up a ball of chocolate dough, roll into a ball and then press it into a disc in your hands.
  8. Take a ball of peanut butter filling half the size of the chocolate ball.  Place it onto the chocolate disc and wrap the chocolate dough around it until the peanut butter ball is completely covered.
  9. Place it onto the baking paper and continue to do this until all the dough is used.  Place cookies about 5 centimetres apart.
  10. Place cookies into the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.
  11. Store in an airtight container.

* Note I have used raw cacao because I love the taste and it is healthier, but you could used cocoa instead.  Also where I use agave nectar, you could use Maple Syrup.

Enjoy!

Mia xxx

 

 December 28, 2011

Gluten-Free Summer Peach Flan & Wet Dog

Dec 262011
 

 Christmas is over and the shops were open today for the annual sales, which I avoid.  Our Christmas was full of small children running around, in and out of the river, Church in the morning, beautiful food and happiness.  Everyone contributed food this year and it was a scrumptious feast.

The photo above is a peach flan I made a few days before Christmas.  It is very easy to make and tastes divine.  The whole flan was gone within an hour.  The flower pattern is really simple to make but takes a little while to do.

After making the flan, we headed to the dog beach with mum and her crazy, loveable spoodles, Molly and Louis.  It is so fun to see Millie running with the dogs and their endless amounts of energy.

When you are at the beach you can see the dogs have a big smile that fills their face.  And we do too.  The ocean is different every day.  We also often meet people we know and stop for a chat as we stroll along.

Recipe for Summer Peach Flan

Ingredients for Shortcrust Pastry

225g (2 cups)  All purpose gluten-free flour (of course you can use gluten flour also)

good pinch of salt

100g (8 tablespoons) butter at room temperature

45mls (3 tablespoons) cold water

Sugar – to taste (I used about 2 tablespoons of white sugar only)

How to Make Shortcrust Pastry Pie Shell

  1. Sift the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl
  2. Cut the butter into small chunks and rub it into the flour mix between your fingers.
  3. Pour the water in and combine to make a stiff dough
  4. Take the dough out of the bowl and roll it in your fingers to make a ball.
  5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for ten minutes to an hour.  (You can leave it overnight as I did – no problem).
  6. Roll out the dough on a floured board with quick rolls from the middle, turning the board around.
  7. Lightly grease your pie dish.
  8. Stretch the dough over your pie dish, gently press it in and trim the edges.  Prick the base with a fork and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  9. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (350 Farenheit).
  10. Line the pastry with baking paper and cover with lentils or baking weights.  Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the lentils or weights and cook for another ten minutes until golden.  Remove from the oven and let it cool.

Ingredients for Peach Flan Filling

4 – 5 ripe peaches

2 teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg

Sugar to taste – I only used two dessert spoons as I like to use as little sugar as possible.

How to Make Flan Filling

  1. Cut the peaches into quarters, then carefully remove the stone and cut the quarters into four small slices.
  2. Place the thin peach slices around the pin tin, starting from the outside and overlapping them.  Make sure that the pieces are faced with with skin to upwards.
  3. When you get to the centre, cut some tiny slices for the middle.
  4. Sprinkle the nutmeg and sugar over the peaches.
  5. Place the flan in the oven and cook at 180 degrees celcius (350 Farenheit) for 30 minutes.

Slice your flan and serve with cream or ice cream – or plain because it is divinely delicious!

Enjoy!

Mia xxx

 

 December 26, 2011

Christmas Smells Like the Ocean & Sugar Cookies

Dec 242011
 

Precious.  These days are precious.  Holidays are wonderful.  These last few days have been spent organising our home, preparing for Christmas and daily walks to the beach to swim and run and play.  They have been social with many friends and family joining us for meals and beach times.  Preparations include lots of cooking.  We have made cookies, peach flans, big fresh salads, pastas.

Our beaches in Perth are not like those of tropical islands.  They are wild and untamed like our landscape.  At this time of year it is kitesurfing season and our afternoon waters are scattered with beautiful, colourful kites.  Perth beaches are not calm, they are wild and windy.  The waves aren’t often gentle.  Usually they are big and frothy and loud.  Sometimes when I am in the water and look up to see a huge wave about to hit me, even after swimming in these waters since I was a child, I still have a small moment of terror, before I duck dive under.

Maybe the terror comes from near-drowning memories we all have from our childhoods.  I remember many times  father scooped me up with his big hands,  from the ocean’s edge, spluttering and coughing, after being pinned and dragged by a huge wave to the shore.  My ears, nose and mouth full of sand and my head full of a new understanding of this Indian ocean’s power.  Now, as a mother, I have been the one to stand by my child while she has learnt to navigate these waves as they beat the shoreline.  I have had the pleasure of plucking her from the ocean, calming her shaking body and sending her back out into it again.

This is what I love about our beaches.  They are exciting.  The wind clears my head and the waves and wind are so loud that conversation is not an option. Somehow the wind and waves can even stop my thoughts and leave me only breathing and soaking it in.

In contrast to our wild, daily beach visits is the tranqility of  home, the packaging of cookies for friends and family and the little trips to drop them off.

Millie spent a lot of time making these cookies and painstakingly decorating each one.  She then handmade boxes, lined them and piled in the cookies before tying each with string.  Gifts of homemade food are the best, especially when a child has made them.

The recipe for sugar cookies and icing can be found here.    I changed the recipe a little.  I added raw cacao powder instead of cocoa and I added some homemade Spekulaas spice to make them spicy.  With the icing if you are piping like Millie did, use a piping bag with a very small nozzle and make sure that the icing is about the consistency of cream to get a good line and to ensure it is not too difficult.

I hope you enjoy making them as much as we did.

Wishing you and your families peace, love, joy and hope on this Christmas.

Love

Mia xxx

 December 24, 2011

Eerie Summer Evenings and Homemade Chai

Dec 202011
 

This is another post from last Christmas that I wanted to include on this site.  We stayed in a lovely little town called Denmark in Western Australia.  Right near the stunning Ocean Beach is a spectacular wetland.  At dusk our native black swans swim with seagulls and kangaroos come to graze in the field behind.  It is eerie and beautiful.

In the West the colours are often subdued, not the evergreen colours and crispness of Europe.  Ours is an untamed, tangled beauty, trees that are bent and broken by the wind.  Grey-greens, greys, grey-oranges, and sometimes a pop of bright purple or pink.  I love this gnarly, untethered wildness.  It makes me feel at home.

For Christmas presents I decided to make fresh teas.  I went to the incredible spice store and Millie and I spent hours choosing fresh ingredients.  We then came home and made our own chais and teas.  We packaged them in little silver boxes and gave four to each family for presents.   The spicy peppers and cinammons coming from our kitchen filled the house for days and gave a perfect scent to Christmas.

This is the recipe I used which worked well.  Instead of tea bags, I bought the freshest aromatic loose tea leaves I could find.  I had friends asking me if I was going to give them more this year.

 December 20, 2011

Beach Christmas & Tomatoes Stuffed with Bocconcino

Dec 202011
 

This post is taken from onehourcraft.com last year at Christmas.  Christmas in Australia, as everyone knows, is in summer.  This makes our meals lighter, our days very hot.  Christmas falls in our longest holiday of the year, where our schools break for seven weeks.  It is wonderful.

Last year, we took a holiday to one of our favourite spots, four hours south of Perth on the coast, and spent a lot of time exploring huge deserted beaches and coastline that seems to go forever.  The landscape is magical and white and hot and blue.  The sand is as fine as icing sugar and squeaks when you walk on it – but also burns.  The water is crisp and a shock to all your senses.  Hair gets bleached in the sun and like straw by the end of the day.  Food is a little difficult to manage because from the shop to the home, lettuce wilts and milk goes sour.  It is all a matter of timing.

As a light, beautiful hors d’oeuvres for Christmas I made baby tomatoes stuffed with Bocconcino cheese and a leaf of basil.  They are really simple and quick to make and look gorgeous on a Christmas table.  All you need to do is slice both ends off the tomatoes, perch a bocconcino ball on top with a fresh basil leaf slipped in behind.  You can season with pepper and drizzle with olive oil.  The fresh flavours suit a beach Christmas.

Christmas this year is much the same as last year.  Walks on the beach, beautiful light  meals, dips in the ocean and maybe there will be enough time to spend a week or so in the forrest.

 December 20, 2011