Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey with ricotta and lavender and a Pork and Macadamia Stuffing

Ingredients

1 Turkey (approx. 5kg) - free range if possible
11/2 tblspn butter
3 tspns sage - ripped into pieces
3 cloves garlic - minced
700gms ricotta - remove moisture by holding suspended in a muslin cloth (above a bowl)
200gm grano padano or parmigiano-reggiano - grated
1/2 cup italian (flat leaf) parsley
3 tspns oregano - strip leaves from stems
3 tspns lavender flowers
2 lemons - grate rind finely and juice
1 kg muscatel grapes (seedless if possible)
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken stock

Stuffing

1 tbspn butter
3 eschalots - chopped
2 cloves garlic - crushed
2 good quality pork sausages - skin removed
2 pieces bread - roughly torn
3 tblspns chopped macadamia nuts
1 tblspn sage - chopped
1 tblspn oregano - strip leaves from stems
1 egg - lightly whisked
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Fry sage in butter and 2 cloves of the garlic until clear and softened, cool slightly.  Add garlic to ricotta, parmesan, herbs, lavender, lemon rind and juice, season with salt and pepper.
Seperate the skin from the turkey by carefully putting your fingers between the skin and the flesh near the lower back and gradually lift further onto the back and the thighs, it will create a 'pocket' to place the ricotta mixture between the skin and flesh.  Place the ricotta mixture under the skin and press gently to ensure it is evenly spread. Stuff turkey with  pork and macadamia stuffing, then tie legs together using kitchen string and place breast side up in roasting pan, add wine and half the stock.  Melt some extra butter and brush over the turkey skin and season with salt and pepper.  Place a piece of foil loosely over the turkey and cook turkey in oven on 180 degrees (160 fan forced) for about 1 hour, then remove foil, baste with juices and add extra stock to roasting pan if necessary, add the muscatels to the pan, roast for a further  11/2 hours (size dependant) basting with the pan juices as needed, until juices run clear when thickest part of thigh is pierced.  Place on a serving platter and loosely cover with foil to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Stuffing Method

Gently fry the eschalots and garlic in the butter until tender. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together with hands, until well combined, fill turkey cavity with stuffing. 

Note: I usually cook this in the BBQ, following the same instructions.  Turn on all four burners, to preheat BBQ, then turn off the two underneath the grill plate and place the roasting pan there, without direct heat underneath, regulate the temperate to around 180 degrees.

Ice Cream for Christmas

Rasberry Semi Freddo

Ingredients

3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar
1 3/4 cups cream
500gms frozen rasberries - crushed

Method 

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil.  Place eggs, yolks and sugar in a heat proof bowl and place over the saucepan of water (reduce heat if necessary).  Using electric hand beaters, beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, creamy and warm, then remove from the heat (turn off pan) and keep beating until cooled.  Add the rasberries and fold through.  Beat the cream until soft peaks form, fold through the egg and raspberry mixture.  Place in a freezer proof bowl and freeze for 6-8 hours

Pistachio, Ginger and Brandy Semi Freddo

Ingredients

3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar
1 3/4 cups cream
100gms glace ginger
200gms salted, roasted pistachio's
2 tablespoons brandy

Method

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Place eggs, yolks and sugar in a heat proof bowl and place over the saucepan of water (reduce heat if necessary). Using electric hand beaters, beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, creamy and warm, then remove from the heat (turn off pan) add 1 tblspn brandy and keep beating until cooled. Add the glace ginger and pistachio's. Beat the cream until soft peaks form, beat in one tblspn brandy, fold through the egg, ginger and pistachio mixtre. Place in a freezer proof bowl and freeze for 6-8 hours

Christmas Cake

Fruit Cake with Ginger

Ingredients
6 1/4 cups mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, dates, cranberries)
2 tablespoons glazed ginger
1 cup almonds
3/4 cup brandy
250 gms softened butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2-3 tablespoons brandy extra

Method
Place fruit, ginger and nuts in a bowl and pour brandy over top, cover and leave to soak overnight or for a few days.  Preheat over 140 degrees.  Place softened butter and brown sugar in mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beat between until completely mixed.  Add the flour, and bicarbonate cinnamon and ginger and stir to combine.  Line a 20cm tin with two layers of baking paper and spoon in mixture.   Bake 2 hours or until cooked through, using a skewer to test (it will come out clean when cooked and should be a light golden brown colour).  Whilst still hot pour over the extra brandy and cool in the tin. To make the design, once completely cooled, remove from tin and use a christmas decoration or shape placed on top, then simply use icing sugar sifted lightly over the top and remove the decorations.

notes: if you prefer not to add the ginger, just remove the glazed ginger and the ground ginger from the recipe.

 

Muesli

 

Toasted Muesli with Maple Syrup

A lovely toasted musesli with nuts and a few dried fruit, both healthy and delicious, and seriously easy to make...

 

Ingredients

1kg rolled oats

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

350gms dried nuts and seeds, like cashews, almonds, pepita's, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, brazil nuts and macadamia nuts

150gms dried fruit, such as cranberry's, sultana's, dates and figs

 

Method

Place the Oats, Maple Syrup, Oil and spices in a bowl and mix thoroughly, spread mixture evenly over two oven trays and bake at 160 degrees for about 15 minutes until just light golden brown (you may vary this according to taste).  Place nuts onto tray and bake a further 10 minutes until lightly toasted then add dried fruit and cool before popping into an airtight container for storage. 



 

 

Fabulous Cake by adriano zumbo

Chocolate Cake

 

A fabulous Adriano Zumbo cake which I just had to share with you, super dooper chocolatey with the sexiest meringues, chocolates spikes and macaroons - what a treat for the eyes!

 

Oh, yes and for those cake eaters out there - the taste buds too!!

 

 

 

 

Woodland Creatures Birthday Party

 Toadstool Cake

An intimate party with a Woodland setting for a little girl who loves bunny's, deers and toadstools.

The grass on the table is polar fleece and so had a lovely soft mossy feel, the table was decorated with
a gorgeous white birch tree (from Bed Bath and Table), the beautiful white ceramic bunny is a money box and of course I made the toadstool cake.

For the cake, use my chocolate recipe, that you will find a in a previous post.

 

The base was baked in a stainless steel wine cooler (love those!) and the top of the toadstool was baked in a stainless steel mixing bowl, just join the two together with the chocolate ganache from the recipe once they are completely cooled.  You will need to buy red fondant icing (try good homewares/cooking stores) as red simply can't be made that bright by yourself (mix bought red fondant with a little white fondant so it isn't as sticky). 

The grass is shredded coconut thrown in a bag with green colouring, a little butter icing spread onto the plate (or board) will keep the coconut in place.  I used fondant for the doors and windows and roses, then piped the green on for the shrubs and ivy around the toadstool.  To make the roses , take a small ball of pink fondant and roll it into a long sausage shape - about 5cm (2 inches) long, then flatten a little, take one end and roll it back on itself so it curls up and pinch the base a little to hold then pop it onto a 'shrub' made from butter icing.

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns

600gms White Bread Flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tspns dried yeast

2 tspns bread improver

100gms softened butter

1 egg

320mls milk

1/2 tspn salt

1 tspn cinnamon

1 tspn mixed spice

Finely grated rind of 1 orange

1 cup sultanas

Crosses

100gms plain flour

1/2 cup water

Glaze

55gms caster sugar

1/2 tspn mixed spice

1/2 tspn cinnamon

1/4 cup water

Pre-heat your oven to 220C

Place all ingredients into bread machine and set on 'dough', once it is ready remove the dough, knock it down (place dough mix onto bench and give it a little hit with your hand to knock the air out of it), ten work in the sultanas.  Cut into 16 pieces and shape into balls, using a rectangular or square cake pan, place the balls evenly - allowing some space from the sides so all buns can grow at the same rate.  Put in a warm place for 30 mins until doubled in size.  Mix the plain flour and water together to make the crosses until it forms a smooth mix about the consistency of toothpaste, place this into a piping bag or tube and pipe on the crosses.  Bake until deep golden brown and cooked through (test with a skewer), approx. 25 mins.  Whilst they are cooking make the glaze, bring ingredients to a soft boil for a few minutes until sugar has melted.  When you take out the buns, brush over the glaze using a pastry brush and allow it soak into the hot buns.  Serve hot with butter.

(You may add mixed peel if you wish, I have used orange rind, to eliminate the need for big chunks of peel, this is a personal choice.)



Kaftan

Kaftan for Daytime

Kaftan for Evening

If you're looking for a quick dress to make and would rather not insert a zip here's a very easy and sexy way to make something to wear either casually or for going out.  It is all up to the fabric that you use and with a slight adjustment you can make a 'V' neck or a round neck and make it fall to one side or both sides, you can also make your own tie waisted belt or use a belt from your wardrobe.  Here's a couple I made, one for evening and one for daywear.  Play around with the layouts and fabrics and you'll soon design some of your own gorgeous Kaftan's.  You'll need about 2 metres of fabric (dependant on your height and how long you want your Kaftan. The width across the fabric can be anything over 90cm wide dependant on if you wish to have two sides (as per daywear Kaftan) or one sided (as per Evening Kaftan).

Kaftan Layout (click to enlarge)

Kaftan Layout (click to enlarge)

Valentines Cookies

Rose Petal Valentines Cookies

125 g butter, softened
2 tspns finely grated lemon (or orange)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup plain flour
2 tbspn self raising flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tbspn rose buds, pull out stems and shake out seeds, then crush petals

Icing
2 egg whites
450gms soft icing sugar


Oven 180C /160C (fan forced)

Beat Butter, rind and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg yolk.  Sift all flours together, add to mix along with almond meal and rose buds, stir until well combined (do not beat).  Knead cookie dough on a floured board/bench until smooth.  Seperate into two balls, roll each one between sheets of baking paper - about 5mm thick.  Place dough in fridge (still between baking sheets), for approx 1/2 hour so it becomes firm. 
Once firm, cut out heart shapes and bake a few cm's apart for about 12 minutes, until just turning golden brown.  Allow to cool a little before transferring to cooling rack.
Once the cookies are completely cool, make up the icing mixture.
To prepare icing, beat the egg whites and the icing sugar until very light, white and fluffy (resembling toothpaste).  Place 1/2 the mixture into a bowl, and the remaining mixture into two seperate bowls.  Tint the larger bowl and one the smaller bowls pink, then add a little water to the larger of the two to make it a bit runny, this is the 'flow icing', leave the third bowl white,and add a little water so it is runny to use as flow icing.  Place the icing into piping bags or tubes using a mid size hole on the flow icing, a small hole on the white (to use for the dots) and a very small hole on the firmer pink icing (this is the line icing).
Trace around the edge of the hearts with the line icing, once this is dry, pour in the pink flow icing and allow it to flow to the edges of the line icing, filling in the entire surface of the cookie.  Using the white flow icing place tiny dots on the cookie - this will run into the pink icing and spread a little, so make the dots small - practice on a few first if you are new to all this.  Sprinkle some of the plain pink cookies with crushed rose petals.  Turn your oven on to 50C and place the iced cookies in for 15 minutes, this will help the icing to set really well. 

Package them up in something gorgeous and share with friends, loved ones or that special someone. 

Have a delicious Valentines Day! 



p.s. don't forget my Valentines Heart for those crafty people out there.... a few posts ago...

Chocolate Cake

This week I organised a party for a lovely four year old boy called Alex, and I thought I would share the cake and party bags with you for inspiration.  I have also included the chocolate cake recipe as it's quite easy and yummy, so much so that both children and adults came back for seconds.  When you read the ingredients, you'll see that it contains lots of chocolate - so it's no wonder it was a hit! The recipe below is for a double mix of cake as the tin is obviously quite large.  Just a hint, you can often hire the cake tins from specialty gift stores or catering stores, just have a look around your local area. The cake board is covered in contact and strips of the same were popped onto plain white paper bags with orange stars cut out of paper and attached with a matching ribbon.  I also made a cute garland using the stars on a ribbon to run across a doorway.  Very inexpensive and very effective.  I hope you find some fresh inspiration for your next kids party...

And now for the recipe...

Melt and Mix Chocolate Cake
400g butter, softened
400g good quality dark chocolate  (I use Callebaut Couveture chocolate but, if you're on a budget cadbury's will do, but nothing cheaper.. the taste is in the chocolate)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (buy from your supermarket)
2 cups caster sugar (I use raw caster sugar)
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2  cups self raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 160c. Grease and line a large pan (NB. this quantity is for a large pan or 2 pan mix)
2. Place butter, grated chocolate and 1/2 cup hot water in a microwave heatproof bowl and microwave uncovered for 1-2 mins (stirring occasionally) until smooth.
3. Add cocoa powder to warm chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla, sugar and egg.
4. Stir flour over the chocolate mixture and stir gently until combined. Pour the mixture into prepared pan
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging.
6. Allow to cool completely in the pan.
7. Turn cake onto a cake board and decorate.

For the number four cake shown above, I used pre-prepared fondant icing, available from your supermarket.  Before the cake is decoarted, apply a layer of chocolate ganache to the cake, made from 200gms dark couveture chocolate and 100mls cream, simply bring the cream just to the boil, pour it over the grated chocolate, stir gently, so you don't create air bubbles, pop it in the fridge and let it semi set, then spread over the cake to create a lovely even layer, so the fondant rolls on neatly.  The image just above shows the same cake with fondant in between two layers of cake, and also on top with grated chocolate to finish it off, great with a coffee... 

For the childrens cake, the fondant is tinted with food colouring, rolled out and placed on the cake and the stars are made using a cookie cutter, the stars are applied with a little beaten egg white. Allow the icing to dry before transporting (especially in hot weather). 

Cork Pin Boards

If you're looking for a new pin board to get organised this year, try this simple idea. 

These three cork boards cost $4.99 at Ikea, I used a permanent spray adhesive to adhere lovely fabrics to each board and removable velcro tabs to hold them onto the wall.  To stop the edges from fraying on the linen and patterned cotton fabric I used 'Fray Stoppa', the third fabric is felt which doesn't fray.  Draw the shape onto the fabric then just inside the line run a bead of the fray stoppa, once it's dried cut out in the middle of this section just 1-2mm from the drawn line - so you don't end up with pencil mark showing through to the front of the fabric. 

Organisation the beautiful way!

Valentines Day

Well, it will soon be Valentines Day, here's another quick project for you...

Take a wire coat hanger and a pair of plyers, undo the coat hanger and make it straight using the plyers (wear safety goggles and do this outside away from others), leave the end as it was that joins the pieces together, you'll use that part again as it is.  Shape it into a heart shape.  Use a roughly cut strip of fabric, long enough to fit the coat hanger with some gathering.  I have chosen raw linen with contrasting red thread, in a stitch which is doubled up so it looks really thick, and I made the stitch length quite long, so it looks hand sewn. Sew along the long side, thread it onto the hanger then wind the metal ends around each other and hide them within the fabric, use a couple of hand stitches to hold the fabric together at the back.  Cut two pieces of fabric together in the shape of a luggage tag, sew them together, I used a blanket stitch and then sew or hand stitch the word 'love' onto the tag, hang from a matching ribbon and tie onto the heart.  Hang it from the wall, sit it on the bed, in front of a window, wherever it works for you, it's lightweight so it can hang from lots of places. 

Have a Happy Valentines Day!

Sunrise

Whilst writing up ideas for my new business this morning, I was watching the sunrise from my window and I thought I would share it with you.... 

It was so lovely that after I took this photo I walked down to the beach to have an even better view.

Coasters

A little project that you can do when you have some spare time, make a few gorgeous fabric coasters.  I chose denim and a japanese linen print - just cut out the size you like, plus a little strip to use on the contrast fabric, sew this on to your plain side, then use spray adhesive to join the front and backs together and sew around the edges - easy!  If you use softer fabric - use iron on interfacing to join the front and back together, it will provide the rigidity you'll need to make them feel like store bought coasters.  You can also spray waterproofing onto them so they won't stain.. enjoy!

iPad cover

 Sometimes when I design I can't decide between styles, this is one of those times, so here are two iPad covers which of course co-ordinate with the felt messenger bag. I couldn't decide between the more basic, contemporary style cover or the more Japanese inspired design, so two for you.

Welcome to 2012

Welcome back for the New Year!

I love the Lunar (Chinese) New Year, it allows me to slink back into the New Year a little later than most here in the West and say Happy New Year!  

May 2012 bring love, happiness and creativity to you all..

It has been quite a while since my last post, mostly due to moving house with the only internet connection coming from the 3G on my iPhone.. not quite sufficient for photo's on a blogsite - plus truth be known I have been enjoying the weather as much as I can, as well as setting up my new sewing area. It's been so hard to find a spot for all of my fabrics, not to mention spice jars and craft boxes. Over the festive season I moved from a large, three bedroom house with a sewing room into a two bedroom apartment and finding space has been a bit of a challenge - but finally..Success!  I actually love it, all of my stuff on one level, not split over four, although I have had to increase my beach walks to counteract losing all of the stairs which were so good for my glutes... :- ) 

Here's my lastest project - a gorgeous felt carry bag - which holds A4 folders etc. Can you tell I love turquoise?  I am about to make a iPad case and several other stationary type products to compliment it, shall keep you posted...