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Margaret Fulton’s Pikelets

An Australian classic. Great for breakfast or a cold winter’s afternoon tea.

Ingredients
1 cup self raising flour
1 pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
¼ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
1 cup of milk soured with 1 teaspoon of white vinegar (or ½ milk, ½ buttermilk)
2 tablespoons of melted butter (about 30 grams from stick) and extra butter for frying

Instructions
The manual way
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Poor into the well and using a wooden spoon gently mix, drawing the flour in gradually from the sides until the batter is formed. It should still be slightly lumpy.

The quick way
Chuck the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse it a few times to mix. Add the egg, milk and butter and pulse until mostly mixed.

Cooking
Heat a frypan on medium heat with a little butter. Put ¼ cupfuls into the frypan and cook until the bubbles rise through the batter. Flip and cook the other side.

Serve with your favourite preserves, or with sugar and lemon juice (my favourite).

Makes 12.

RELATED Book review Margaret Fulton’s Cookbook

Grilled fruit with passionfruit butter

A quick and elegant desert.

Ingredients
2 stone fruit per person (I've used plums here)
1 jar of passionfruit butter (or lemon curd butter)

Instructions
Preheat the grill to 200 degrees Celsius. Halve and seed the stone fruit and place cut side up on a baking tray. Place a teaspoon of the passionfruit butter on the top of each one. Place under the grill for 10 minutes or until the fruit has warmed through.

Serve with passionfruit ice-cream (home made is good, recipe coming to a blog near you one day soon)

The best pizza

My bread-maker allows me to make the best pizzas ever. The only other pizzas I’ve had as good as these are those I had in Rome.

Ingredients
Dough
200ml water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
375g/2 ½ cups bread flour
1 ¾ teaspoons dried instant yeast

Sauce
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tub tomato paste
1 tin crushed Italian tomatoes
¼ cup barbecue sauce

Topping
1 medium ball of bocconcini mozzarella, sliced
3 kumatos* (or 2 tomatoes), sliced
4 slices of prosciutto, sliced into strips
12 basil leaves
¼ cup light mozzarella, grated
4 Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
½ red onion, sliced
4 slices of Danish salami, sliced into strips
1 tablespoon of Romano (or parmesan) cheese, grated

Instructions
Dough
Follow the instructions with your bread-maker to make the pizza dough. An electronic scale gives the best results for measuring. Remove the dough after an hour (30 minutes of rising). Thin bought pizza bases are an OK alternative.

30 minutes before the dough is ready, turn the over on to its highest temperature and allow to heat. If you have pizza stones, make sure they heat with the over. Pizza stones allow you to get a similar affect to if you used a proper wood fired oven.

Sauce
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the tomato paste. Cook the paste for a few minutes or until heated through. Add the crushed tomatoes and barbecue sauce and cook for another few minutes. Reserve half the sauce and freeze the rest for your next pizza (or use as a pasta sauce).

Dough
Remove the dough from the bread-maker and cut in half. Roll out each half to a thin 30 centimetre circle on a floured board and then place onto the heated pizza stone.

Topping
Spread the remaining sauce over both pizza bases. On one pizza, place the slices of bocconcini, tomato, prosciutto and basil. On the other, sprinkle the mozzarella, then the onions, mushrooms and salami, and top with the Romano. Don’t go overboard with the cheese, there should just be enough to help the topping stick to the base, no more. When cooked you should see the sauce through the cheese.

Place the pizzas into the oven for 20 minutes, swapping shelves half way through, or until the topping is cooked and the cheese brown.

Remove, cut and eat.

Makes two pizzas.

* Kumatos are also called black tomatoes. Originating from the Galapagos Islands, they have the flavour of nicely ripe tomatoes, even when not perfectly ripe themselves.

Prawn salad with chilli jam dressing

This is a quick and healthy salad.

Ingredients
1/2 bag of rocket
2 tomatoes or 3 kumatos
1/2 Lebanese cucumber
1/2 punnet of snow peas
1 tablespoon of chilli jam (or sweet chilli sauce)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons lime juice
20 peeled raw prawns

Instructions
Mix the mayonnaise, lime juice and chilli jam in bowl. Add the prawns and toss. Marinate for up to an hour if you have time.

Heat a frypan and assemble the salad in individual bowls.

Place the prawns in a single layer in the frypan and cook for a few minutes on each side, or until just cooked. Add the rest of the dressing as you turn the prawns over.

Add the prawns and the dressing to the salad and serve.

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side dish.

Wine
I’ve chosen a spicy Canobolas-Smith 2004 chardonnay from the Orange region of NSW. The smoky wooded characteristics work well with the smoky flavour of the chilli.

Apple Tart Tartain

This is a simple version of the French upside-down tart. It’s easy and delicious and you can make it in 30 minutes.

Ingredients
4 gala apples
50g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Rind from 1 lemon
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
1 sheet pre-prepared puff pastry

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (medium hot). Remove a pastry sheet from the freezer and allow to thaw.

Cut the apples into quarters, remove the cores and then cut into wedges. Place into an oven proof frypan with knobs of butter and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Grate the rind of a lemon and sprinkle over the apples. Add the juice of half a lemon, vanilla essence, and cook the apples for 10 minutes over high heat, shaking to mix the butter and sugar to make a syrup.

Cover the apples with the pastry sheet, cut to size, tucking the pastry down around the apples. Bake in the oven until the pastry is crisp, about 20 minutes.

Turn the tart out upside-down onto a serving plate. Serve wedges of the tart with pouring cream.

Serves 6.

Variations
Use granny smith apples with more sugar for a tarter version. Just use pears and brown sugar for a caramel version. You could also use saffron and vanilla with the pears for an exotic flavour, or even maple syrup.

The Margaret Fulton Cookbook

A lovely basic book and an essential for all kitchens. This book is the updated version of Margaret Fulton’s 1968 classic and has everything from roasts to pikelets. A perfect reference for any cook, beginner to advanced.

In fact, a second hand copy of the 1968 version was one of my first cookbooks. It was good then and it’s good now.

Grilled bread with olive oil

Such an easy accompaniment or it’s great as a lazy pre-dinner snack on a cold day, with some antipasto and a nice wine.

Ingredients
1 loaf of heavy bread, like a white sourdough
Good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
Freshly ground salt

Instructions
Preheat a hot grill.

Cut 1.5cm slices from the bread, two or 3 slices per person. Brush one side with olive oil and then rub with the garlic and sprinkle with salt and place under the grill. I’m using the award winning Pukara Estate (in the upper Hunter Valley) Robust Premium Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil here. Remove the bread when crisp but not too brown.

Turn each slice repeat the oil, garlic and salt (what a classic combination) and place back under the grill.

Remove when crisp and serve.

Variations
Add more or less garlic to taste. I often just use the olive oil and salt. Pepper, rosemary or other herbs are also nice and you can match it with your meal.

Greek/Turkish/Arabic Coffee

This is an easy and rich alternative to an espresso. I think it is much nicer as well.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon coffee per person
2 teaspoons of sugar per person (or to taste)
1/3 cup of water per person plus 1/6 cup (or 1 espresso cup per person).

Instructions
Spoon a tablespoon of coffee per person into a mortar and pestle. If your coffee isn’t a fine ground, use a mortar and pestle to grind it as fine as you can. The results will be worth it.

Transfer the coffee to a small, tall saucepan. Add the sugar and the water, stir once, and place over the heat.

Watch the top of the coffee as it starts to heat and take it off as soon as it starts to foam up in the centre (about 5 minutes).

Allow to sit for a minute or two to let the grains settle, then poor into an espresso cup and serve. I’m using a Turkish tea glass here instead.

It’s as easy as that but remember, don’t drink the grains in the bottom of the cup.

Thanh Binh Vietnamese Restaurant

I do like going to the Thanh Binh, they have such yummy food. Vietnamese is like a gentle version of Thai food, with more use of things such as lemongrass and lily bulbs.

I’d recommend the bi chou chay (vegetarian fresh rice paper rolls), cha gio (fried spring rolls), and the goi du du chay (vegetarian green papaya salad) for entrée. For mains I’d recommend heo kho to (caramelised prok fillets in claypot), bo luc lac (wok-fried diced rump steak with garlic and cracked pepper), and gar xa ot (stir-fried chicken with lemongrass and chilli).

If you’re after phó (noodle soup), and apparently theirs is very good, you’ll need to check out their weekend lunch menu.

Thanh Binh Vietnamese Restaurant
111 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9557-1175

Tue-Thu 17:30-22:15
Fri 17:30-23:00
Sat 12:00-23:00
Sun 12:00-22:00

BYO Wine Only and licensed
$2.50 corkage per person.

Chicken and sweet corn soup

This is a modified version of John from work’s soup. He made it for us one lunch and it was delicious, so I thought I’d try it myself.

Ingredients
1 can corn kernels
4 bulbous spring onions
2 cloves of garlic, crushed ( or 1 teaspoon of cheaters pre-crushed garlic)
1 knob of ginger peeled and diced ( or 2 teaspoons of cheaters pre-crushed ginger)
12 chicken wingettes (the meaty part of the wing)
20g dried shitake mushrooms (1/2 a pack)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 star anise
5 cups boiling water

Instructions
Cut the white heads of the onions, tail them, cut them into quarters and separate the wedges. Reserve the green parts for later.

Heat the oil in the bottom of a large saucepan and add the onion, ginger, garlic and chicken, and cook until the skin of the chicken has coloured a little (about 10 minutes).

Add the boiling water, shitake mushrooms, and star anise to the pot and allow to simmer gently with the lid on for at least 1/2 an hour. As the fat rises to the surface, gently skim it out with a spoon.

Add the corn kernels and allow to simmer at least another 1/2 an hour, still skimming fat if required. Add the sliced green spring onions just before serving.

Variations
Replace the wingettes with chicken legs for a more substantial meal, or with chicken breast for a low fat one. If you use chicken breast, add it when you add the corn, and substitute at least some of the water for chicken stock. You could also add noodles to thicken it up.

A vegetarian version would use tofu instead of chicken breast, and vegetable stock.

John doesn’t use shitake mushrooms with his, and he uses normal onions and chicken wings instead. He also adds pasta and milk to make a creamier, thicker soup.

Serves
Four to six, and it freezes well.

Tea without caffeine

Did you know that most of the caffeine in tea is released in the first 30 seconds? If you throw that cup away and then re-use the tea leaves or tea bag, you still get all the flavour and very little of the caffeine.

Or you can do what I do and re-use the same tea leaves all day. I need that first cup of caffeine related goodness in the morning, but I don’t really for the rest of the day. The tea still tastes great but I don’t get that unneeded buzz.

How to make a perfect latte

Australia has a big coffee culture, probably as a result of a lot of Italian and Greek influences in our multicultural migrant communities. We don’t really do the big chains of coffee stores, most people would rather go to their local café and get a fabulous cappuccino, latte, macchiato or espresso from them.

Coffee machines for home are also big, and I have one, thanks K who gave me hers. I only have to pay her back by making her great coffee when she is around. Here is how to make a great latte using my Krupps coffee maker.

Ingredients
¼ cup bottled water per person
1 tablespoon good coffee grounds per person, I use decaffeinated by preference.
1 cup cold semi-skim milk, half way between skim and full cream, it makes the best froth.
Sugar to taste.
A glass for your latte.

Instructions
Add the water to the coffee machine and seal the pressurised lid. This is the only time I used bottled water, otherwise I get it out of the tap.

Add a scoop of coffee per person to the basket and tamp it down. The basket I use has convenient markings on the side of it so I know I have the right amount. Do you like my tamper? P made it for me ^_^.

Get your latte glass and fill it 2/3 of the way with milk. Poor this into your jug and turn the machine on.

Wait until the coffee just starts to come out of the machine, then release your steam valve to make sure you have enough pressure. If you do, place the steam head in your milk, so the nozzle is just covered and allow the milk to froth. Move the jug so the nozzle is always just covered and stay there until the jug is hot to touch (or you run out of steam). Look at the creama on that coffee, the sign of a good cup.

Tap the jug on the bench to release some of the bubbles and then poor slowly into your glass, making sure you have about 2cm of froth on the top. Use a spoon to hold back some of the froth if required. Leave about 2cm at the top of the glass for the coffee.

Very slowly poor the coffee into glass. It should rest in a layer above the milk but below the foam, creating a great visual affect.

Serve your friends to ahhhs of appreciation.

How to cut onions without crying

I think everyone has heard so many ideas about how to do this. For me the only one that works it to top and tail the onion, remove the skin, then soak it in a bowl of water for 10 minutes.

Yep, as easy as that and it works every time.