Tuna and Avocado Sushi

From a warming hearty winter dish to this summery recipe. It's like one extreme to another. It's not really the weather for making or eating sushi though is it? But that would reflect my mood, I'm so over this cold winter, bring on summer!

Sushi rice
2 cups Sushi rice (short grain)
3 cups of water
4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

NB: For every cup of rice you will need 1 1/2 cups of water

Method (rice cooker instructions)
1. Place 2 cups of rice in the rice cooker bowl and rinse it till the water is no longer cloudy.
2. Pour in 3 cups of water in and turn on the rice cooker.
3. Mix vinegar, sugar and salt and stir until sugar dissolves. Sprinkle over rice, slicing through rice with a wooden spoon to break up any lumps and distribute the vinegar evenly.
4. Cool rice quickly by fanning it for 5mins. Cover with a damp cloth to stop the rice from drying out.

Method (stove top intructions)
1. Place 2 cups of rice in saucepan and rince it till the water is no longer cloudy.
2. Add 3 cups of water and bring it up to the boil. Stirring occasionally.
3. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 12-15mins.
4. Remove from heat and stand covered for 5-10mins.
5. Follow instructions above from step 3 onwards.

I chose Sun Rice this time.

Very happy with this product as the rice turned out perfectly and I love the packaging. It has a re-sealable zip.

I don't have one of those wooden bowl type things that you are suppose to cool it in and I also don't have a wooden spoon, so a plastic one would have to do. Here I've sprinkled the vinegar mix and getitng ready to "cut" the rice

The ingredients I chose to use this time to wrap was:

1 grated carrot

1 avocado

1 large can of tuna with roughly 3-4 tablespoons of mayo mixed in, and some salt and pepper to taste

The tuna and mayo mix

The finished product.

Best served with some Japanese soy sauce and wasabi

A lovely light healthy meal perfect for the warmer weather (when it finally comes around). Well Spring is just around the corner.....hurray!

Cottage Pie

Winter means hearty, filling, comfort food. And Cottage Pie is exactly that. It's something I grew up on and never had it often enough. So now I make so much that it usually lasts a few days and I still am not sick of it. Like when I make spaghetti, enough to last at least 3 days. My record eating spag bog was 6 days in a row....almost made it to a week. But it wasn't the same spag bog (I would probably have keeled over with food poisoning if I kept food for that long). So does it count if it was 2 different versions? Eating my one for 4 days and eating my dads one he made for the following 2 days? I digress......


Sorry went off to a bit of a tangent there....now Cottage Pie....yes yes, I love it. When I was little however I would eat it with rice (yes even though it's a meal on it's own and yes it has mash potato on top), nowadays I can do without the rice although secretly I think it needs it hehehe


Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 brown onion
2 garlic cloves
1kg minced beef
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup chicken or beef stock
1 cup of frozen vegetables of your choice
salt and pepper


1kg potatos
100g butter
1/2 cup milk (more or less depending on how you like it)
salt and pepper


Method
1. Heat oil in pan then add carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent and other vegies are soft.
2. Add meat and cook for another 10mins making sure you stir and break the mince apart so it's not all in big chunks
3. Add flour and tomato paste and stir well, cooking the flour.
4. Add bay leaf, worcestershire sauce and stock. Cook for 10mins.
5. While the meat is cooking, peel, cut and boil up the potatoes.
6. Add the frozen vegies, salt and pepper and cook for another 10mins giving you time to finish off your mash potato.
7. Pour meat into a big roasting dish, layer the mash potato on top. Decorate the mash by dragging a fork over the top.

Fresh vegies

Cut extra small so hopefully the little lad won't pick it all out

Fresh vegies, meat and liquids added

Frozen vegies added
This time I chose corn, peas and red capsicum

Bottom layer

Top layer

Fresh out of the oven

Cottage Pie

Chocolate Swiss Roll with Honeycomb, Banana and Mascarpone

I saw this recipe in the Masterchef magazine and was excited to try it because I had a can of (what I thought was) Caramel Top 'n' Fill, which actually turned out to be Chocolate Top 'n' Fill. Only realised this when I was ready to mix the filling. Oh well....chocolate on chocolate, can't be too bad.

This recipe calls for 3 x 50g Crunchie Bars but I made my own honeycomb after seeing Gary show us how easy it is to make in Masterclass. Love mixing a bit of science with cooking in the kitchen hehehe!

For the honeycomb you will need:

365g caster sugar

140g glucose sugar

110ml water

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

Place sugar, glucose and water in saucepan. Brush down the side with water to stop the sugar crystals forming.

Let it boil for around 10mins. Watch for a golden tinge.

This is the fast process - pour in the bicarb and whisk

Mixture will rise very quickly so pour it into a baking paper lined bowl straight away

Watch in amazement as it rises

Let it rest for 45mins.

Honeycomb flipped upside down

Honeycomb cracked up and ready to use

Random shot of my little man learning to be a food photographer

That's the honeycomb done. Now onto the chocolate sponge.

Ingredients

6 eggs, separated

110g castor sugar

25g Dutch cocoa (plus extra for dusting)

2 tablespoon plain flour (recipe called for potato starch because it's meant to make the sponge nicer but I don't have any and it said plain flour would be fine)

125g dark chocolate, melted

250g mascarpone

160g Dulce De Leche or Nestle Caramel Top 'n' Fill (which ended up being the chocolate one)

3 x 50g Crunchie Bar (made my own honeycomb)

1 small ripe banana, diced

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease a 28cm x 32xm swiss roll tin and line with baking paper.

2. Using an electric mixer, whisk egg yolks and sugar on high speed until thick and pale. Sift cocoa and plain flour and fold in gently. Add chocolate and 2 tablespoons of boling water and stir gently to combine.

3. Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Fold in chocolate mixture.

4. Spoon batter into prepared tin and level with back of the spoon. Bake for 12mins or until cake springs back when lightly pressed.

5. Dust generously with cocoa powder, then cover with sheet of baking paper. Invert cake with baking paper onto a work surface, then gently peel paper from the bottom of the cake.

6. While the cake is still hot, use the baking paper to gently roll up the cake from its long side, rolling paper with the cake. Cool for 20mins only.

7. Place mascarpone, Top 'n' Fill, 100g honeycomb and banana in a bowl and stir until partically combined.

8. Genlty unroll the cake, then spread with filling, leaving a 2cm border. Re-roll the cake (it may crack a little but don't worry). Cover and refridgerate for 30mins or until filling is firm. Dust with extra cocoa and scatter with remaining honeycomb to serve.

Egg yolks and sugar

Folding the chocolate mixture into the egg whites

Chocolate swiss roll batter

Freshly out of the oven

End result

Er herm.....doesn't look quite like the photo in the magazine! But it still tasted pretty good. I'm sure the caramel would have given it the extra edge it needed but I was satisfied. I think it needed more banana though, perhaps 2 would have been better (I love bananas). The honeycomb was the highlight for me though. I was so excited to make it and for it to turn out. Especially because it was so easy to do (not to mention fun). I had loads of honeycomb left over and handed it out to family and friends to help polish off (I'd made a double batch just in case).

Hurrah to Masterclass!!! I sure am going to miss Masterchef

Chocolate Chip Cookies

What to do when you try to jump on board the macaron craze and try to make them yourself, but fail miserably? TWICE?! Go back to an easy, humble and most importantly a reliable recipe that makes you feel like you can bake afterall. I don't know what I was thinking trying to make macarons myself. Everyone has been making them (inspired by Masterchef surely) and I thought, heck why not, I should be able to do them. Boy was I wrong! I'm not giving up on them entirely, I'm just taking a break from it until I build my confidence up again. Little suckers! I'll combat them one day....just not anytime soon. So what do I do instead.....Oh Martha Martha Martha.....thank you Martha. Her Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is awesome! Thank you for restoring my faith that I can bake! Ok so the recipe is not that hard......anyway, on with the photos.

Mixing the cookie dough.

Ha ha my little man makes me laugh every day. He's been paying very careful attention everytime I make something. He's now running off to grab his toy camera and taking "photos" of our food like I do. God love him! He's a food blogger in the making ; )

I prefer to just dollop them out with two tablespoons. I can't be bothered rolling each one perfectly, plus it's the rustic look ; )

Freshly out of the oven

A whole massive plateful to enjoy!

Martha called hers "Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies" but I don't think they are chewy. They are indeed soft though. I halved the quantity of chocolate chips, 2 cups seemed way too much, but each to their own. A delightful recipe which is both easy and results are wonderful. Loved these cookies so much and will definitely be making them time and time again.

Churros

Ever since my second pregnancy I've been constantly craving donuts, even now after giving birth. I am just loving the doughy, fluffy, deep fried, sugar and cinnamon coated balls of fat. Is it the most unhealthy snack out there? Bar the deep fried mars bar....or the deep fried Krispy Kreme Burger.....yeah that was pretty sickening....even for me.

Anyway since I can't make a donut as good as Donut King, I tried to make churros instead, which turned out to be a real success. Detrimental to my waistline (especially when I've got the excess post pregnancy weight I should be losing) but I just can't help it. These beauties are irresistable. Recipe is here.

These aren't as good as the ones from Jas My Waffles which I've posted about here. But a pretty good substitute and would be even better if I had the right tip for my icing bag.

Churro dough

Frying the churros

Fresh out of the oil and into the sugar cinnamon mixture

A whole plateful!! Yum!

And a drizzle of chocolate sauce just for good measure.

Absolutely to die for!

Savoury Muffins

These muffins are great for kids who don't enjoy their vegetables. They are so tasty and moreish even for adults. It helps that I use lots of bacon too I suppose. Omit the bacon and you will have a vegetarian muffin that is (in my books) healthy and still delicious. Just make sure you double the batch because I find that these go really quickly.

Ingredients

1 onion chopped finely

4 rashes of bacon (rindless) chopped finely

1 carrot grated

1 zucchini grated

4 eggs

1 cup of tasty cheese

1/4 cup milk

1 cup self raising flour

salt & pepper

NB: The best thing about this recipe is you don't have to use these vegies, you can substitute it for anything you want to use up in the fridge. And in my case I had red capsicum and pumpkin I wanted to use up

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease 2 x 12 hole muffin tins

2.Sautee the onion and bacon (takes about 3 mins), then add the other vegies and cook for another 3 mins. Transfer to a bowl.

3. While the bacon and vegie mixture is cooling, mix the eggs, cheese, cream, salt and pepper in another bowl.

4. Pour the cream mixture into the bacon and vegie mixture and stir.

5. Add the flour and stir through (don't over mix though)

6. Spoon into muffin tins and bake for around 15mins.

Onion and bacon

Carrot and pumpkin

Capsicum and zucchini

Cooling down the cooked bacon and vegie mixture

Egg, cheese, milk, salt and pepper

Everything combined

Fresh out of the oven (I decided to use a rectangle muffin tin this time which meant it took a little longer than the 15mins)

Very moreish!

Chocolate Fondant

I can't believe it took me this long to try make a chocolate fondant. I've been missing out big time! I love everything about it. It's warm, it's rich, self saucing, creamy, spongey, decadent, chocolatey...it's got everything.

I might try Nigella's version sometime soon just to compare. I've heard mixed reviews about her recipe but I'll only know for sure if I try it myself. Either ways, I know this recipe is a winner and I will keep this saved in my recipes archive.

Served with cream and ice cream

Oozy chocolate sauce inside

Ahhh to be a kid again when your biggest challenge was getting every little bit of chocolate mix from the bowl