I’m thinking of adding another cooking class for the school here. I’ve bought a large candy hook, specially crafted for pulling toffee and the like. It’s great fun and is every bit as good as a workout at the gym.
We would also do a range of chocolates, truffles and old fashioned favourites like coconut ice, turkish delight and honeycomb.
Let me know if you are interested and we will set up a class.
Email – sally.anne.wise@hotmail.com
or phone 0408 569 423
Last weekend in a rush of doing other things I decided to throw a soup of sorts into the slow cooker. For the little fuss I’d made and nil attention in the cooking, it turned out really well. It was very tasty and ideal to serve with fresh crusty bread.
It’s slow cooker time of course, at least the season when people begin to think of using them again. MInd you it is versatile enough to use all year round, great for having a meal to come home to after summer recreational or sporting pursuits.
Here is the recipe for the soup. I used a 3.5 litre capacity slow cooker you could double if for a 6 litre capacity.
1 chicken breast (no need to cut up)
1 onion, diced
400g tin creamed corn
1 carrot, diced
1 stick celery, diced
½ cup water
1/2 teaspoon chicken or vegetable stock powder
Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and cook for 3 hours on HIgh or 6 hours or more on Low.
Leave the chicken in the soup – just shred it with two forks. Add salt and white pepper to taste.
There are still places available for the Slow Cooker cooking class this Friday, 17th May. In the class we will be cooking a beef dish, as well as a vegetarian and a chicken dish. Of course there will need to be a dessert! Lemon Marshmallow Meringue Pudding is on the menu.
Learn the many tips and tricks to get the absolute best from one of the best electrical cooking appliances ever, ever invented – the humble and handy slow cooker.
The class begins at 9am and concludes at around 1pm.
For bookings phone 0408 569 423 or email: sally.anne.wise@hotmail.com
The address of the cooking school here is 179 Wyre Forest Road, Molesworth – about 30 minutes from Hobart.
At a book signing last week a gentleman who came along was asking about a recipe for gluten free bread. He commented that home made gluten free bread recipes result in a cake-like loaf. I think he’s right as eggs are usually added to the dough to improve the texture and to add the protein that is a substitute for the gluten.
I came home and put together a new recipe, minus the egg factor that is in my book “From My Kitchen to Yours”. I’d discovered recently that adding buttermilk to regular bread gives a finer texture, and that grated raw potato improves its keeping ability and makes the bread softer. I applied these to the new loaf and indeed It was indeed more bread-like and less cakey.
It was nice fresh and delicious toasted the next day.
Gluten Free Buttermilk Bread
4 cups gluten free plain flour
4 teaspoons dried yeast
2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons sugar
1½ cups buttermilk
45g butter, diced
½ cup boiling water
50g potato (peeled weight), finely grated
2 teaspoons baking powder
Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar and then make a well in the centre.
Heat the buttermilk to a little more than lukewarm (don’t worry if it separates as it’s heated).
Mix the butter with the boiling water until it melts. Mix into the buttermilk, together with the grated potato and then pour this mixture into the well in the dry ingredients. Mix well and then cover the bowl with a tea towel. Leave in a warm place for about one andd a half hours. It doesn’t rise to the extent of regular bread, but there will be some movement.
Whisk in the baking powder then pour this batter into a loaf tin (approximately 13cm x 21cm). Cover the tin with a tea towel and leave the bread to rise for 20 minutes.
Bake at 190 degrees C for 40 to 45 minutes until golden and it sounds hollow when taped with the fingertips. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
For those who listened to the Jams and Preserves segment on Saturday, you would know that soon another book will be released – “The Complete Slow Cooker”, a compilation of “Slow Cooker” and “Slow Cooker 2″. I am very pleased with the way it is presented with a very attractive hard cover. This book is due for release on April 23rd.
For listeners to that radio segment also, you may have heard me mention that I had accidentally over-purchased bananas. It must be something about getting old. I’d been around the fruit market once but on the second round, making sure I hadn’t missed any bargain, I’d forgotten that I already had bananas in my trolley and bought another two kilo bag. Now that there are only two of us at home, there was a good chance a great number would go to waste.
Over the Easter break, if your household is anything like mine, there will be visitors dropping in. If you’d like a little something as finger food to serve with drinks or as a snack for children on the go, try these little crispy crunchy fish bites. They are made and cooked in moments.
In this recipe I have used tinned tuna, but you could use cooked fresh fish of any description. You could likewise vary the herbs. I included the lettuce as I had grabbed a handful walking past the vegetable patch just before I made them. You can leave it out, but as they cook so quickly, the lettuce retains its texture and so I think it’s good to add if you have it.
This recipe makes about 12 to 15.
It’s hard to ignore the tantalizing aroma of hot cross buns being baked all over town, all across the country for that matter – that wonderful combination of yeast and spice on the breeze that leads us into local bakeries and cafes, supermarkets even.
While there is nothing wrong with buying them, they are so easy to make that it’s a shame not to give it a try. Your whole house will smell amazing! I made a batch last night, two in fact as I couldn’t resist making another this morning, plus I had an order for some.
The recipe to follow is the one I put together last night.
But where do the “Peace-ter buns” come into it? Well, in our increasingly multi-cultural society, there are some who perhaps do not celebrate Easter as we might. Just in case and to cover all bases and preferences, instead of the characteristic cross on top of the bun, I piped the international symbol for peace on one or two.
I have bought an ice cream machine – well, to be quite frank, two of them. The first I purchased is the sort where you need to freeze the insert. The other, bought in a sale at huge reduction in price (this is how I justify the expense of such indulgence), has its own compressor. Both are good, the second is great.
Recently I came across Ashgrove butter and it was absolutely delicious. I ordered quite a bit from the farm to use in cooking classes here, but along with it a large amount of cream, milk and buttermilk – rather more than a bit too much.
I had to go out a few evenings ago so decided to leave something in the slow cooker for Robert’s dinner. Now, as for the pumpkin cake in my last blog, the pantry was getting a bit low as I’d been to busy to go shopping. I went through the recipes in Slow Cooker and Slow Cooker 2, trying to match something to my three small chicken breasts and handful of sundry ingredients, but nothing quite fitted the bill.
What I did have was quite a few vegetables from the garden, so pulled them together, along with a few spices, and this recipe below came out of it. I was astounded at how tasty it was, despite its humble ingredients.
There was a pumpkin in our garden that needed to be used as its stalk on the vine had broken. My grandmother’s old pumpkin cake recipe is always a family favourite here, but when I went to the pantry no mixed fruit, an essential ingredient, was to be found (so much for efficient mise en place).
With the pumpkin cooked and the cake batter already well under way, I was committed to coming up with an alternative. Such is the way of things that the end result has turned out to be superior to the original. I had plenty of sultanas and a whole jar of glace ginger.
Question asked of you on SallyWise.com.au