Orange Pudding

Here in South Africa, Winter is quickly on its way. The air is cooling fast and before we know it, frost will lie thick and white on the grass, that is actually still green. We skipped autumn. Again.
And with Winter, comes winter fruits - like oranges, and lemons.
I bought a bag of oranges and decided to try and make a dessert with some of the oranges. It was absolutely divine - perfect for a cold winter's day!!!

Preparation time: 30min
Cooking time: 45min + 45min
Serves: 6-10
Difficulty Level: light medium

Ingredients
Juice of 5 oranges = 300ml
Zest of 1 orange
Thinly sliced peel of 1 orange
1 cinnamon quille
6g fresh ginger, bruised
3 whole cloves
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1t baking powder
1/2t salt
125g butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
2tbs butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 160degrees C. Prepare your baking dish by spraying with Spray&Cook or lightly covering the inside with butter. 
Squash the oranges lightly until they are soft. This helps loosen the juices on the inside to get as much juice out of them as possible. Grate the zest off of one of the oranges. Juice all the oranges to get about 300ml of freshly squeezed orange juice out of them - without the skins. Slice one orange's peel thinly.

 Add the juice, the thinly sliced orange peel, cinnamon, ginger, sugar and cloves and the skins of one orange to a small pot. 

On low heat, let it melt together and simmer for no less than 30 minutes, so the flavours can develop.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and the zest to the melted butter, and add the 2 eggs. Whisk well. Add to the flour and mix thoroughly until it forms a stiff dough. 

Place broken off and flattened pieces of dough in the prepared baking dish.

Once thoroughly simmered, pour the syrup through a sieve. Pour the syrup over dough in the baking dish. 

Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until lightly browned and slightly crisp on top.

In the meantime, take the orange peel mixture that are left in the sieve and place in a small pot. Cover with about 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Add the 2tbs of butter and let it simmer until it gets sticky. 

Remove from heat. You don't want it browned and you don't want it to get hard.

Once the pudding is ready, remove from the oven and cover evenly with the orange peel. 

Enjoy warm with custard or ice cream or as is!!

Yours in oil and veggies... and dessert!!

Risch

Mince Samosas

You cannot make samosas without a filling. Basically you get chicken, mince, potato and cheese fillings for samosas. And samosas are associated with hot curry, too. However, you can make any filling you want for your samosas - so have some fun!! 
This is my version of the mince samosa. It is very rich, and needs to be eaten warm. Samosas can be made a whole meal or be enjoyed for lunch. It is also a great on the road snack, for school, and can be frozen successfully. 

Preparation time for the dough: 1 hour
Preparation time for the filling: 30 minutes
Serves: +- 48 units
Difficulty level: Medium - for the dough

Ingredients for the filling

700g mince
2tbs oil
1 onion, chopped
1tbs balsamic vinegar
2tbs soya sauce
4tbs chutney
2tbs spice for mince
1tbs parsley
1/4t ginger
1t fennel
1/4t hot curry powder
1tbs salt (or to taste)
1/4t black pepper

Method
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and fry until starting to brown. Add the mince and fry until starting to brown. 

Add all the other ingredients, mix well and cook until the mince is completely cooked. 

Turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 10min, check constantly that it doesn't burn. The mince should be nicely browned and loosened. Once the mince is done, it has to cool down completely before filling your samosa cones. 

What works well, is to make the mince before you even start with the samosa pastry. The longer the mince rests, the better the flavours develop, too. 
Make your samosas as described in the Samosa Pastry recipe. (This picture just shows the Cheese Filling)

Fry in hot oil until nicely browned. 

Scoop out of the oil onto kitchen towels to drain the excess oil. 

Serve with a salad, or some fresh cream cheese &sweet chillie sauce...

And enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Thai Fried Fish

I was in the mood for something different, and I was craving coconut... Being Thursday, it is fish or chicken night. So, I decided to make something resembling Thai. I am specifically saying "resembling" as I am not quite sure if I actually achieved it, but from what I could find regarding flavours and combinations, I came pretty close. 
I have to admit, this is not my favourite flavour combination. Don't think I am a Thai-person. But perhaps you feel differently?

Preparation time: 20min
Cooking Time: 10min
Difficulty Level: Easy
Serves: 6

Ingredients
Sauce

165ml coconut cream
1/2t hot curry
1/2t mild curry
1tbs soya sauce
1tbs lemon juice
1t honey

Add everything together in a pot and cook until starting to thicken. Remove from heat, cover, and let the flavours develop.

 Fish

6 pieces of deboned hake fillets
2tbs butter
1tbs olive oil
1tbs lemon juice
1/4t ground ginger
1/4t ground cinnamon

Melt the butter and the oil together in a pan. Add the lemon juice, ginger and cinnamon. Let it fry a little. Add the fish and fry on both sides until done. It's done when it is soft, flaky and white. There shouldn't be any more fish meat that is translucent.

Serve on rice or bread (We had it on bread, as you can see) and drizzle the sauce over. My kids loved it!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Cheesy Mince Foldovers

Monday Mince Day. I had to get the wrap recipe on the blog... So, we made mince wraps!! It was truly divine, rich and full of flavour... comfort food at its best!!

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped
2tbs olive oil
1/2 t ground ginger
1t mild curry
500g mince
1 tin mushrooms / 1 punnet mushrooms, sliced
salt & pepper
2tbs soya sauce
1t Spice for Mince
2t sugar
3tbs seedless raisins
Wraps
Cheese
Mayonnaise

Method

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onion, ginger and curry and fry until soft. 

 Add the mince and fry until starting to brown. Make sure you loosen the mince well. 

Add the mushrooms, soya sauce and spice for mince and fry until nicely browned. 

Add the sugar and raisins and mix well. Remove from heat and let it rest for a while. 

Spread mayonnaise generously on the wraps. Cover with cheese. Reheat the mince if necessary, and scoop onto the wraps. 

Fold the wraps: first the bottom, 

...then left

... and then right. 

Turn over and let it sit to form into shape, then you can turn it over and it should stay. 

And enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Chocolate Rocks

I just wanted to bake some cookies…. This is my own recipe, and it is something different. However, when I make this again, it will have a little more liquid in. Perhaps more butter…??

Ingredients

2cups flour

½ t salt

2t baking powder

1t baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)(koeksoda)

1/4cup cocoa

1t ginger

Pinch cloves

1/4cup desiccated coconut

100g butter

1cup sugar

2 eggs

1t Vanilla essence

1t Rum essence

Method

Preheat the oven to 180degrees C. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cloves and cocoa together. 

  Add the coconut and mix through. Cream the butter and sugar together. 

Add the eggs and essences and mix well. Combine the flour and egg mixture thoroughly to form a dough. 

Roll into balls and shape. 

Spray a baking tray with non-stick spray. Place the balls onto the tray, not too close together. Bake in the oven for 20minutes.

Let it cool down and enjoy!!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Simple Thai stirfry

We are busy moving - I am super excited!! But that also means limited time, energy and resources (my pots and glassware are already packed!) Tuesday is meat night, though, so I defrosted some tenderised steak. I thought of a traditional stirfry, but didn't have all the veggies fresh on hand. Or frozen, mind you. This is what I came up with:

Ingredients

750g tenderised steak, cut into strips

2tbs butter

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raisins

1tbs golden syrup

1tbs honey

1tbs balsamic vinegar

1/2t ground ginger

1 apple, grated

1/2t english mustard

Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Melt the butter. fry the apple, raisins and sunflower seeds a little, 

Add the meat. Fry a little. 

  

Whisk the honey, syrup, vinegar, mustard and ginger together. Add to the meat and mix well. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Lower the heat, put on the lid and let it slowly cook a little to develop the flavours. Turn off the heat, keep covered. Re-heat when you are ready to dish up. 

We had it with microwave potato and some Cottage-Mayo sauce. Very interesting combination of flavours, very delicious. and low-carb to boot!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Orange Reduction Sauce

I wanted to make this sauce, but had no idea how. So I kind of made it up as I went along... (reminds me of a song by Mike and the Mechanics).. Anyway...

Preparation Time: 5min
Cooking time: 10min
Difficulty Level: Easy
Serves: 5

Ingredients

1 orange
2tbs water
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
1/2t ground ginger
1/2t butter
Orange zest

Method

Cut out the flesh of the orange and put in a small pot. Add the water and start cooking. 

 As it cooks, squash the flesh to get as much juices out of it as possible. Once it very soft, take it off the heat, press through a sieve into a bowl, pour the juice back into the pot, back on the heat. 

Add the nutmeg, lemon juice, ginger and the zest of 1/4 orange. Cook a little. Add the butter. Let it reduce to watery syrup consistency. 

Enjoy over ... well, anything you like! Pork tjops, ice cream, chicken....

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Cinnamon Bread

The weather yesterday was gloomy.... cold, a bit windy and overcast. Couple of drops fell, but no rain. It was the perfect stay indoors and snuggle up in front of the tv... with popcorn or pancakes... 
But pancakes - bless it, I absolutely love it - is a lot of work!! And it gets eaten so quickly... 
So I began to think if there isn't something a little less work with just as much feel-good satisfaction that the pancakes give, that I can make... and then I remembered Hot Cross Buns! 
I searched the Internet for recipes, and I found a couple, but not one seemed simple or straightforward. So I used their direction, and made my own. Since I used their direction and ideas, I have to give credit: please have a look at Nigella Lawson and Allrecipes.

Preparation Time: 30 min
Baking Time: +- 1 hour
Difficulty level: Easy
Serves: 6+

Ingredients:

6cups bread flour
2 packets 10g instant yeast
3t fine cinnamon
1 1/2t fine ginger
1/4t freshly grated nutmeg
1cup mixed raisins (cake mix)
1t salt
2cups brown sugar
2 cups milk
2cups water
100g butter
1 cinnomon stick
5 whole cloves
Zest of one orange
3 eggs

Method

Pour milk and water and butter in a saucepan. Add the cinnamon stick, cloves and zest. Boil for 10min. Leave to cool a bit. 

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Beat the eggs well. Once the milk mixture has cooled a bit, add the egg while whisking briskly. Pour the milk mixture through a sieve into the flour mixture and mix well. It should be a sticky mixture. 

Cover and let it rise in a warm place to double in size. Mix down. Spray a large bread pan very well with non-stick spray. Pour the mixture into the pan and cover. Let it rise again in a warm place. Bake in an oven at 160degrees C for about an hour, until the testing pin comes out clean. 

Enjoy hot with butter!!

As you can see, my bread pan was way too small!! It actually poured over the edges... But it was absolutely beautifully delicious... 

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch