For The Love of Doughnut Babies!

Ingredients

7g Dried Yeast

3 Tablespoons of warm water

1 1/2 Cups of Luke Warm Milk

1/2 Cup of Castor Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Eggs

75g Butter Softened in little cubes

625g Plain Bread Flour + 3 Extra Cups for security purposes

Cinamon Sugar - 2 Cups of Sugar & 2 Tablespoons of Cinnamon

Sprinkle yeast over warm water and allow to sit until bubbly.

In a large bowl or in your mixer with the dough attachment add the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and half the flour. Mix on low for a few minutes. Scrape down the sides of the mixture and give it a good stir. Add in the remaining flour and mix on low until a dough forms. Now for the extra flour. I have modified this website recipe as it did not come together into a nice dough. I had to add 3 extra cups of flour to get it to come together. I also only used half the butter that they recommended. (I hate it when you google a recipe and it's not right, drives me batty!)

Place the dough in a bowl and cover. Allow to double in size. Then tip it out onto a floured bench, bash out all the air and roll it out like cookie dough. I had it at about 1cm thick. We used cookie cutters dipped in flour to make shapes. But Alex like the little doughnut men so we mostly used those. Keep the bits and pieces left over. I used them to test the heat of the oil and they were just as delicious also. Place them on a lined baking tray and allow them to proof until they puff up like the photo above.

Now for the frying. I used my electric Wok. It was excellent and a great way to keep the oil the right temperature about 175 degrees. I hovered mine between the 8 & 10 setting on the Wok. Use one of the test pieces and if the oil is bubbling away nicely round the edges your set. Once browned to golden on one side, flip them over with a slotted spoon and allow them to brown on the other. Pull them out, drain on absorbent paper and while still hot dump them in Cinnamon sugar. We used one cup of sugar to every tablespoon of Cinnamon.

They were delicious. I had Kids and Husband in toe grabbing them before I could even finish the next batch. Enjoy them!

Knife Skills

When it comes to children and cooking when is the right time to introduce them to a very sharp knife. I asked myself this question this morning when Alex wanted to help me make Bacon and Eggs. His interest in cooking with me has picked up in the last month or so and he is asking me every time I cook if he can help.

This morning I taught him how to use one of my chefs knives. I was nervous, as any mother would be. But he took it all very seriously. I showed him how to hold it, where the sharp bits are and how to carry it. I explained to him about how we clean up after cutting any meat and he washed his own knife and cutting board, under my supervision of course. He really surprised me. At 5 years old there are so many things his little hands can't coordinate yet, but he was quite skilled using a knife.

So I I will be introducing him to allot more things in the kitchen from now on. He's really building an appetite for cooking from what we are going to cook, picking the right produce at the supermarket and how we make it all come together for a lovely meal. So I will keep you updated from time to time on his progress as my Little Chef as I call him.

My next post is an amazing recipe I have been working on. Braised Ox cheeks in a red wine ragout on garlic mash. I'm having a dinner party on the 30Th of April that I am doing 4 courses for.

I have made the decision that posting from now on, due to the limited time I have with work and with children will not be as often as I used to but I want to maintain my food blog so I say it will be every six weeks or so. I hope you enjoy my recipes and continue to come back and have a look from time to time to see what I am up to. Thank you for stopping by.

Blackberry, Lime, Goats Cheese & Chocolate Crusted Baked Cheesecake

Seriously this is Bloody Awesome, So Yummy, Oh My Happy Aunt!

I took a standard baked cheesecake recipe and turned into something very special. As if baked cheesecake wasn't special enough.

It's not too sweet and not too sour..........it's just right!

Ingredients

1. 300g Plain Chocolate Biscuits
2. 100g Melted Butter
3. 2 x Punnets of Blackberries
4. 380g Cream Cheese
5. 120g Fresh Goats Cheese
6. 200g Caster Sugar
7. 1 Tablespoon of Cornflour
8. 3 Eggs
9. 2 Tablespoons of Lime Juice
10. Pinch of Salt
11. 400ml Sour Cream
    
    

Preheat your oven to 180c You will need an average size spring form cake tin. Line the base with a double thickness of aluminum foil, then with a layer of baking paper. Clip the spring form tin together with the base and fold the sides of the foil up the side of the pan. This will give you extra security for baking. Brush the insides with melted butter.

Crush the chocolate biscuits in a food processor until nice and fine. Then add the melted butter and process until well blended. Press the mixture into the bottom of the spring for cake tin evenly.

Beat the cream cheese, goats cheese and sugar in a mixer until soft and well combined. Add the cornflour and mix well. Then add the 3 eggs one at a time, mixing in-between each addition.

Add the lime juice, the pinch of salt, sour cream and one punnet of the blackberries. Mix well again, try and get the blackberries to squish a bit so it bleeds their beautiful colour into the mixture. Then just fold through the other punnet of blackberries.

Boil a full kettle of water ready to go. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the cake pan and spread out evenly.

Place the cheesecake into a baking dish lined with a tea towel. Pour enough boiling water into the baking dish to fill half way up the cake pan.

Bake for 50 minutes and then turn off the oven. Allow the cake to stay in the oven for another hour. Do not open the door!

Then take your cheesecake out of the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature. Remove the spring form tin. Refrigerate for a couple of hours or for best results overnight.

This is a cheesecake that does not need to be served with cream or any other embellishment. This one stands alone and proud.

Oh and delicious!!!!

A New Beggining

It has been 20 months since my last post. Where did the time go and what happened? Well you could say that life has taken over! Work has been an undeniable factor in the missing presence of my blog posts.

I've moved from one side of the country to the other. Now in Adelaide, South Australia, Food and Wine Country. So a food bloggers dream come true.

Work has taken over my life and I forgot about my blogging for a while, not because I don't love it but because it was getting to hard. I'll do it tomorrow, I'll get to it on the weekend, but no, I didn't get to it.

So my new years resolution is to go back to it, a new chapter in my life, a new beginning. Of course there is still work and being busy but I have vowed to get back to the old me and do the thing I love . I think I have grown in the last 20 months. I have perfected the Creme Brulee which I will share with all of you. I have achieved some amazing cooking milestones. Those recipes will come out through the next series of posts on this new beginning of mine.

I hope that you will all enjoy this next chapter in my blogging life. So I will see you soon with a new South Australian inspiration. With the amazing quality of food and wine here, the Central Markets one of the best food markets in Australia, the restaurants here, how could anyone not be inspired.

Cheers

Squishy

Mitch's Fish Part 2

I cooked Mitch's fish Asian style. I stuffed it with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, lemon slices, lime slices, chili and coriander. I topped it with lemon slices, lime slices, chili, coriander leaves, garlic, salt flakes, fresh ground pepper. Drizzled it with sesame oil and light soy.

Then I wrapped it in a double layer of foil and baked it for an hour on 180 degrees.

When it was unveiled in all it's marvelous glory the smell roamed through the house. It was amazing.

I served it with bokchoy that I lightly stir fried with ecshallots, sesame oil, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Heaven.


I served it on a bed of fragrant jasmine rice that I cooked in the rice cooker with a cup of shredded coconut. I topped the sweetlip with chopped chili, eschallots sliced fine and a little light soy. It was so moist and so delicious and just so refreshing. Not heavy but very satisfying. You will just have to wait and see what I do with the long nose fish.

This post is dedicated to Mitch and his beautiful fish :)

Mitch's Fish

Our friend Mitch went on a charter boat fishing for the last two days. Look what he brought home for us!!!!! One is a long nose snapper or sweetlip and the other one is a regular sweet lip........I think, I have a memory like a sieve sometimes. They were caught yesterday. How awesome is that. I would say they weigh about 4 kilos each. So what to do.......what to do with these amazing fresh fish. Well I am going to cook one of them whole and the other I am going to fillet. The sweetlip is going to be baked with some excellent Asian flavours. Mitch mentioned to me yesterday that I should cook them in an Asian style, so I will do justice to his amazing catch and do that for him. I am going to be honest I have never cooked a whole fish this big before, ohhh so scary, not as scary as making puff pastry from scratch but still scary. I will keep you posted on how the fish goes and what I do with them. Thank you very much Mr Mitch, you have a heart as big as Pharlap for thinking of us :)

Also I have not really been blogging for the last few months it's been so hectic and full on that I just honestly have not had the time. I have been meaning to I just have been extremely tired. So hopefully I can get back in the swing of things again. I hope everyone is safe and well.

Cheers

Squishy

Townsville is an Island

Today our trip to the supermarket was the worst we have seen in the past five days of the flooding. It is amazing how reliant you become on what they provide. Due to the constant rain and the horrific flooding Townsville is once more an Island. Today was quite frightening and we are not out of the woods yet. There is a low that just does not want to dissipate and these monsoon rains are now fully taking their toll. With king tides and more rain predicted this weekend, people have been warned to prepare for more flooding. In Charters Towers, locals asked for emergency supplies of food but ended up receiving 7 pallets of beer. Mind you alot of people probably enjoyed that LOL. You have to laugh otherwise you would cry. We have had 763 mm of rain.

It been has two weeks of one extreme to the other for me. Last week I was in Melbourne for training and the overwhelming heat wave was stifling. Looking at the drought ravaged land as I flew over Victoria nearly had me in tears. Then I come home last Friday to more rain than you can imagine and I wish I could push alot of it down to the thirsty Victorians and South Australians. Now with the Souths devastating bush fires, I ask the question??? What the Hell is going on????

Go and have a look at what is happening in my neighborhood click on the link Townsville Bulletin

My heart goes out to all of us during this time here in North Queensland and to the people in Victoria and South Australia. All of us are dealing with the most extreme weather and here's hoping this will subside soon.

CampoS Coffee

CampoS Coffee

Cafe Roastery Distribution

11 Wandoo Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

Ph 07 3252 3612

I cannot tell you how excited I was to find this little gem of coffee heaven in my recent trip to Brisbane. Seriously the best coffee ever. They know exactly what they are doing. The perfect temperature, the perfect taste. A bell ringer every time. These guys are just awesome. Chopper and I downed two lattes each in a row. My goodness we even stopped there on the way to the airport Saturday morning to get a fix and nearly missed our plane. The lady at Virgin rushed us through security. LOL We are naughty. We brought home bags of beans, different varieties and are happily in CampoS heaven here in Townsville. We have nearly finished the 400gram bag of beans we bought of their superior blend and that was only opened 5 days ago. We just this evening had a cup of the lovely Dark City blend they have. Seriously I am now thoroughly addicted and I am freaking out thinking about when we are going to finish the beans we bought and what are we going to do then. No other coffee compares. Thank goodness they do mail order otherwise I think I would have to go into some type of detox coffee centre. I saw them on the lifestyle channel and I thought to myself, next time I am in Sydney I have to go. Who knew they were in Brisvegas? I only found out by flipping through some Brisbane lifestyle mag at the hotel. I am so out of touch. I am living in food and coffee hell up here in the tropics. :( Now, I know I tell you guys to try this and do that, but this is some seriously fantastic coffee and I urge you with every ounce of my being to go to CampoS either in Brisbane or Sydney. If you don't the only person you are punishing is yourself.

Seriously CampoS............. I love you!!!!!! Follow the link to Heaven!

Love from a very insanely serious caffeine addict!

The Mouses House

Well we have just come back from a well earned 6 days of freedom. In other words no kids. We spent our first two nights in South East Queensland on the Gold Coast Hinterland. Oh I love the Mouses House Chalets in Springbrook. I have never found anywhere quite like it that will even compare. This was Choppers first stay there and he loved it. Snow White is my favourite Chalet, as it has its own little boardwalk, down to your own little stream, with your own little waterfall. It is so beautiful. We lit a fire in our fireplace and yes it is definitely cold enough to do that in Springbrook even in Summer. You can't park your car near your Chalet, you load your luggage and food onto a little trolley and wheel it down the boardwalk paths through the rainforest to your Chalet. Each Chalet is named after a Walt Disney character. Doc, Sleepy, The Wicked Witch, Prince Charming and so forth. Very appropriate. If you come into the woods today, your in for a big surprise :) and yes you are. There is a beautiful wooden hot tub, a sauna and a cold plunge tub, which shocked Choppers body back into reality after our sauna. The chalet is self contained so you can cook up a storm and each chalet has it's own BBQ. Fluffy white robes and our chalet had it's own spa bath. Luxury in the Rain Forest. A big flat screen TV and DVD player to enjoy, but we really didn't use it. We had our own gorgeous view and other things on our mind, wink wink. We had little visitors every night, possums which came onto our deck for a visit. One of the nights we counted seven different possums. We encountered two very determined bush turkeys and the birds are beautiful with their cheerful singing in the background. It's just heaven and you never want to leave. If you are looking for that perfect romantic getaway this is it. The pictures really don't do this place justice as the feeling of being immersed in this little patch of paradise is in no way portrayed to the fullest. My personal recommendation is a minimum three night stay. A day to settle in and two days to relax. So if you get an opportunity, visit their website, book and enjoy the Mouses House yourself.