Anzacs

My ideal Anzac biscuit is thin and crisp. They look healthy and do contain oats, but really there is too much butter and sugar in these for them to be good for you. I've tried making them with less butter and sugar but then they're not Anzacs. A slow oven and careful cooking is the key to success with these. It's difficult to get a uniform result in our oven. Luckily G likes them a bit soft and I like them super crisp.

You will need

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
125g butter
3 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon hot water

To make

• Preheat oven to 150C.
• Combine oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a mixing bowl. 
• Combine butter and golden syrup in a medium sized saucepan and melt on a gentle heat, taking care not to burn. 
• Mix soda with water and add to butter/golden syrup mixture. It will foam up. 
• Add the foam to the dry ingredients and mix well. The mix should be just wet enough to hold together.
• Drop soup spoon fulls onto biscuit trays lined with baking paper or lightly greased.
• Bake in a slow oven until they puff up and fall down again, about 15 minutes. Rotate to avoid burning.
• Allow to cool on trays before moving.

Rice paper salad rolls

This is a favourite spring lunch of ours. Most of the ingredients are from the garden and it's really just a fancy way of eating salad. I haven't given exact quanties, I basically make a big bowl of salad, make it into rolls and what we don't eat at lunch is a pre dinner nibble.  I serve this with lots of bottled sauces; soy sauce, ponzu, hoisin, chilli sauce.. whatever you have. Everyone mixes up their own combination of sauces.

You will need

Rice paper (Banh trang)
Cos or iceberg lettuce
Carrot
Big handful of unsalted cashews or peanuts
Coriander
Mint
Hot mint (if you have it)
Onion

To make

Firstly prepare the filling. Grate the carrot, chop several slices of onion finely. Destalk and chop the herbs. Wash and deslug the lettuce. Dry and cut into shreds. Finely chop the nuts. Mix all the salad ingredients together and set aside.

Lay a clean tea towell on your work area. Fill a bowl or tray with warm water. Slip several rice paper sheets into the water until they are softish. Pull one out and lay on teatowell. Place a roll sized amount of salad at the end nearest you. Roll away from you once. Fold in the sides. Continue rolling until you have a rice paper roll. If you wish to impress, a single leaf such as hot mint or coriander looks very nice rolled into the last layer. You can see it through the rice paper. Very flash. Continue until you run out of salad or rice paper. Serve with sauces.

Herb pesto

This pesto uses easily grown herbs from the garden and nuts such as almond and/or walnuts. We think it is just as nice as basil pesto with pinenuts. And you don't have to wait until summer. I use a bamix hand held blender in a two litre honey bucket to make this and usually have a lot left over for lunches. It keeps better than basil pesto too. Proportion is the key. The bulk of the herbage should be a mild herb such as parsley with accents of stronger herbs such as sage and rosemary. If you don't eat cheese, leave it out, it will still be nice.

I serve it on pasta with sauted mushroom and diced fresh tomato or capsicum. It is quite rich so a little goes a long way.

You will need

three cups of parsley
some or all of these herbs; thyme, sage, rosemary, marjoram, oregano
two small cloves of garlic
about 60g grated parmesan
about quarter of a cup olive oil
about half a cup of almonds and/or walnuts
salt

To make

Wash and de-stalk herbs. Place in bucket with chopped garlic and other ingredients. Process with bamix or food processor until it is a coarse paste. Taste and adjust salt.

Serve about a tablespoon per person over pasta. Add other bits like diced tomato or sauted mushrooms, if you like. Also nice with gnocci or on toast

Chocolate weetbix slice

I remember this slice from my childhood. My mum never made it, but some of her country cousins did. It is very crunchy and contains weetbix, which as a cereal with milk, makes me gag, but as a slice ingredient is quite tasty. I found the recipe in my nans old recipe book. It's very easy.

You will need

1 cup SR flour
1 cup dessicatedcoconut
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup crushed weetbix
120 g butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
3 tablespoons cocoa
icing sugar, cocoa & coconut to ice

To make

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a slice tin with baking paper.



2. Mix dry ingredients together.



3. Melt butter and golden syrup together.



4. Mix wet and dry ingredients together. It will be a bit crumbly. Combine with hands if neccessary.



5. Press into a slice tin and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes.



6. Make a thin chocolate icing and spread over slice. Sprinkle with coconut.



7. Set in fridge. Remove from tin and cut into squares.

Egg and Bacon Pie

I remember my mother making this early in the morning before long car journeys. It would be wrapped in it's pie plate in a tea towel and eaten at lunch. It's nice and juicy when still a little warm from the oven. It's just as nice cold from the fridge.

The recipe is not vegetarian adaptable. Leave out the bacon and it's just not egg and bacon pie. So it will never be travelling food in my own little family. But every now and then I have an insane desire to make and eat this.

Part of the charm of this recipe is it's simplicity. You don't need to make the pastry, ready rolled puff is perfect. It doesn't need any herbs or spices, salt and pepper is enough. But it should have a pastry rose on top.

You will need
a metal pie dish or enamel camping plate
2 sheets ready rolled frosen puff pastry
8-12 eggs depending on the size of the pie plate
250g or thereabouts bacon
milk for brushing

To make

1. Defrost pastry. Line pie dish.



2. Chop the bacon into strips.



3. Break half the eggs into the lined pie dish.



4. Add bacon, making sure that the pieces are separated, and some salt and pepper.



5. Add eggs until you reach the top of the pie dish or decide you've used enough eggs.



6. Break egg yolks with a fork and mix a little.



7. Using a pastry brush, moisten the edge of the pie with egg.Cover with remaining sheet of pastry.



8. Trim and crimp edges together. Brush top with milk.  Add pastry roses and leaves.



9. Bake at 180C until risen and nicely browned.



10. Transport in pie plate, wrapped in a tea towell.

Lemon Butter

 
I like my lemon butter to hover on a knife edge between sweet and sour. I want a double take with each mouthful, followed by a smooth butteriness. It won't last long, it should be exciting!

The secret to nicely smooth lemon butter is to use a double boiler. I use a metal mixing bowl that fits snugly into the pasta pot half filled with gently boiling water. I still need to be careful not to let the mixture boil and curdle, but it's not as scary as cooking it directly on the stove.

You will need
three medium jars or an assortment of smaller jars
cellophane jam covers
4-7 lemons depending on size
6 eggs
350g white sugar
200g butter

To make

1. Wash and rinse jars well and place on a tray in a gentle oven to dry out.
2. Scrape the rind off the lemons using a vegetable peeler, trying to get as little pith as possible. Either chop the rind finely with a knife or place in a food processor with some of the sugar. 
3. Juice the lemons. 
4. Place the juice, sugar and rind in a saucepan and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Taste for acid/sugar balance. Adjust if necessary.
5. Add the butter and heat until butter melts. Strain and return to saucepan.
6. In the bowl you will be using atop the double boiler, whisk the eggs thoroughly. Slowly dribble the sugar/lemon/butter mixture in, whisking the whole time.
7. Place on top of double boiler and cook without boiling, stirring or whisking constantly. When the mixture has thickened so that it will thickly coat the back of a spoon, remove from heat.
8. Using a jug, pour into prepared jars and seal with wetted cellophane and elastic bands.

Yo-Yos

 

My mum is a legendary yo-yo maker and she has very definite ideas on the perfect yo-yo. It should not be browned, lemon icing is a must. I prefer my yo-yos to be very crisp. In my oven this means that some will be a bit brown and some will be a perfect color and very crisp. I've promised to ice some with chocolate icing next time I make them because G is a chocolate, as opposed to lemon, sort of guy.

They definitely use a lot of butter which I think is what makes them so nice. However if butter is not your thing, I've heard they can be made with margarine. My mother's original recipe calls for 12oz butter, 4oz icing sugar, 4oz custard powder, 12 oz plain flour. That's an awful lot of butter to make into a form of biscuit that will probably get eaten rather quickly. Unless baking for sale or gifts, I wouldn't make too many at once.

You will need

250g butter at room temperature
80g icing sugar
80g custard powder
250g plain flour

juice of about half a lemon
about a cup of icing sugar
a piece of butter the size of two peas

To make

1. Cream the butter and icing sugar until it is very pale and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl several times.


2. On a low speed, add custard powder an half the flour. When that is well combined, add the rest of the flour gradually. Sometimes you won't need all the flour, flours vary a bit. The dough should come together easily into a ball without being sticky.


3. Turn the dough out onto a board and gently press into a ball. Shapes into a flat squarish shape.Cut into four and then cut each square into eight. Roll each little sqare into a ball and place on the baking sheet. When all are done, press into each biscuit with the tines of a fork dipped in flour.


4. Bake for approximately 15 minutes at 170C. Rotate trays at the seven minute mark. Keep a close eye on them at the end. They are done just before they begin to brown, or when the end ones are starting to colour. Remove from oven and leave to cool on the trays (protect from marauding cats).

To finish

1. Make the lemon icing by mixing the juice of half a lemon, the little nob of melted butter and the icing sugar into a thick paste.


2. Match each biscuit with another the same size and doneness. Sandwich together with lemon icing. Allow to set before handling or eating.