Bara Pyglyd (Pikelets)

Ingredients

1 large egg, whisked

1 cup self-raising flour

¾ cup milk

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

butter,and olive oil  for frying

Method

Combine all the ingredients except milk in a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the milk and whisk until smooth. Add the remaining milk a little at a time until you have a smooth batter that pours slowly off a spoon. You may or may not need all the milk.

Heat a small knob of butter with a little oil (to prevent the butter from browning) in a flat frying pan. You just need to coat the pan - no more. Using a large soon, scoop a spoonful of the batter into the pan and allow it to spread into a circular shape about 7cm diameter. Depending on the size of your pan you may be able to do 3 or 4 at a time. When you see bubbles or holes appearing in the batter, flip them and cook the other side. It shouldn't take more the 2 or 3 minutes to cook one batch.

Add more butter and oil if needed and cook the next batch. This recipe makes 12 pikelets.

To serve, butter the pikelets or serve with maple syrup or honey.

Japanese style Curry Sauce (for Katsu Kare)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 large carrot, chopped into small pieces
• 2 potatoes. chopped into small pieces
• 2 tbsp curry powder
  
• 3 tbsp of plain flour
  
• 1 cup vegetable stock 
• 1 tbsp soy sauce 
• 3 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tsps of honey 
• Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

In a deep pan, fry the onions in the oil funtil soft and starting to caremelise. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute

While this is going on, boil the carrots and potatoes in a saucepan. Cook until soft.  

Then add the curry powder to the onions and garlic and cook while stirring for about 3 mins until everything is coated in the curry. Then add the flour and stir to combine. 

A little at a time, add the stock and stir to combine, making sure there are no lumps. Simmer for about 3 minutes.

Remove the carrots and potatoes from the boiling water they are in and add to the curry sauce. Save the water (stock).

Add the mushrooms and the soy sauce and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Add in the saved stock to adjust the thickness and the amount of your sauce.

Add the honey and stir though. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Serve with rice and tonkatsu, chicken schnitzel or burgers.

Bouillabaisse

INGREDIENTS

Oil and butter for frying

1 leek, chopped

1 fennel bulb, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4 tbsp tomato passata

1/2 cup white wine

Pinch of saffron

1 tbsp lemon juice

3 medium sized fresh tomatoes, dice OR 1 can chopped tomatoes

A few sprigs of thyme, destalked

2 fillets of white fish, eg snapper

Mussels (about 16)

Scallops (about 8)

250g prawns

Parsley for garnish, chopped

METHOD

In a large deep pan fry the leek and the fennel in the olive oil and butter for about 5 mins until soft. Add the garlic and fry for another minute. Then add the passata, the saffron, the lemon juice, the thyme the tomatoes and the white wine and cook until the sauce begins to bubble. 

You may need to add more liquid at this point, either water or vegetable stock, to get the consistency you want. Season with salt and black pepper.

Next add the fish and cook for about 10 mins. Then add in the rest of the seafood and cook for a further 2 or 3 minutes until the prawns are pink and cooked through.

Garnish with parsley and serve with baguette.

Iced passionfruit cake

We have heaps of banana passionfruit in our garden. So we've been trying recipes to use them. This recipe requires the passionfruit pulp to be deseeded, which is a pain.  The best way to do this seems to be to put the passionfruit pulp In a saucepan and heat gently. Then in small batches push the pulp through a sieve with the back of a spoon

INGREDIENTS

125 g soft butter

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup milk

400ml deseeded passionfruit pulp

1 tbs soft butter (for the icing)

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

METHOD

Preheat oven to 170C fan-forced.

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix then, alternating, add a little flour and milk until you have a creamy cake mixture. Add half the passionfruit pulp and mix well.

Pour into a silicone cake mould or greased cake tin. Bake on the centre of the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Mix the butter and the icing sugar until smooth. Add the remaining passionfruit pulp and mix well. When the cake is cooled, cut it in half and Ice the lower half with 1/2 of the icing. Reassemble and ice the top. 

Bread and Butter Pudding

INGREDIENTS

200ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
75g salted butter
Chunks of slightly stale bread 
3 eggs

2 tbsp of caster sugar

100ml of cream

50g sultanas, or other dried fruit

1 tbsp brown sugar

Nutmeg for grating

METHOD

Heat the milk into a small pan and add the vanilla. Bring to a simmer, then immediately turn off the heat, add the lemon zest and allow to cool a little.

Butter the bread and arrange half the slices, overlapping in an ovenproof dish. 

Whisk together the eggs and the caster sugar until well mixed, then whisk in the milk and the cream. Pour half over the bread, add most of the fruit, and leave to soak for a few minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Arrange the rest of the bread in a second layer in the dish and pour over the rest of the egg mixture. Sprinkle with the rest of the fruit and brown sugar and grate some nutmeg over the top. 

Cook for 35 – 45 minutes until golden brown. Serves 4 or 5.