Chocolate Sundae Cupcakes

This recipe is from a cookbook called Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman. I changed the recipe a bit, though.

Cupcakes
200ml milk (I actually used about 100ml milk and 100 ml cream)
2 tsp vanilla essence
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
125g butter, softened
200g sugar
1 egg

Icing
75g butter, softened
2 c icing sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder
2-3 tbs milk (I used cream just to make it extra bad)

Crushed peanuts and glace cherries for decoration

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together and add the salt. In a measuring cup, mix together the milk and vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the butter mixture, mixing well after each addition.

Spoon the batter into cupcake papers, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, beat the butter in a large bowl. Sift over the icing sugar and cocoa. Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time and continue beating, until the icing becomes a nice, spreadable consistency. Spread the icing on, and sprinkle with peanuts and a glace cherry!

Bubby's BBQ Sauce

Bubby

My grandmother on my dad's side was a Jewish lady from New York. In my memory, she was kind of like a milder version of 'The Nanny'. This may have something to do with the life-sized frog necklace that my sister inherited from her when she passed away. So I always find it funny that this recipe for barbecue sauce, something that I always kinda associate with rednecks, beer, and the South, actually comes from her. IT IS AMAZING. And I have to add, Mel, this one is for you.

2 onions, finely diced (in a food processor is the easiest)
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp dry mustard
3 tbs vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 cup water
1/2 tsp hot paprika or cayenne*
1 tsp Mexican chili powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Sauté the onions in the olive oil until soft. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30-35 minutes.

Ideally, serve with barbecued chicken, or traditionally with pork ribs. For a real American BBQ, have it with potato salad, corn-on-the-cob, and cornbread. It actually goes really well with tofu - but if you choose the tofu option, it is best use firm tofu and to freeze and then defrost the tofu before using it. This way it looses the mushy texture and becomes more meat-like. This sauce will keep forever in the fridge!

*This is VERY IMPORTANT - if you are trying at all to recreate the sauce from my BBQ circa January 2009, I only used about 1/8 tsp of cayenne. Adjust it to your tolerance. I realise that my tolerance to chili is unusually high, and I do remember being younger and really struggling to eat this even though it TASTES SO GOOD so I just kind of kept going. And eventually I ended up where I am today, they chili maniac that I am. So adjust the amount of cayenne according to your own taste!!!

Zeidy, Bubby, Tandarra, Sheldon and Kim

Bay Tinh

Last night, Ruth, Stan and I went for dinner in Marrickville at Bay Tinh. OH MY GOD was it good.
I have been wanting to go here for about a year. A friend visiting from overseas went to meet some other friends for dinner one night at a Vietnamese place 'where the chef used to cook for the king or something'. I was intrigued and only half-heartedly tried to find out where this place was as she didn't know the name. But earlier this week, I asked Becci, an ex-Marrickvillian (or Marrickanuian as they say in Thailand) if she knew of any good Vietnamese places in Marrickville. Lo and behold, the words passed her lips 'There is this place, the chef used to cook for the king or something' and a year and a half of half-hearted searching was satisfied! Okay, the truth is that the search was WAY less than half-hearted - if I had bothered to read my Sydney Cheap Eats Guide, I would have found it very quickly.

Anyway, about the food. Ruth insisted that we order proper spring rolls - 'none of that rice paper rubbish' - and boy do I thank her for that. They were seriously the best spring rolls I have ever had. Beautiful, tender meat, with a lovely dipping sauce. We also had the Crispy Pancake which is apparently a specialty of Bay Tinh. I have to say it is quite unlike anything I have ever had before but was very very good.
We then followed that with the Prawn and Pork Salad, which I think was my favourite, Crispy Noodles, and the Bonfire Beef. The Bonfire Beef was fun, but a bit difficult. They cook the meat in a clay pot at your table, and then you roll your own rice paper rolls with the meat and other ingredients. I have attempted to roll enough rice paper rolls in my time to know that I am not so good at it and I would prefer someone else to do it for me. But all the ingredients were awesome. Overall, the meal was pretty good.

One of the things that I like the most about the restaurant, is that even though the original owner cooked for the King and all that stuff, he arrived in Australia as a boat person. And then when he retired he sold it so another Vietnamese man who had arrived in Australia as a boat person. I think Malcolm Turnbull should go there for dinner, he might change his tune about boat people...

Verduras en Escabeche

In English: Pickled Vegetables
Everywhere you go in Mexico there is a bowl of these on the table. If you love jalapeños and vinegar like me, then this is amazing!! Everytime I eat at Guzman y Gomez I will eat a small container of jalapeños just while I am waiting for my food. I also bought a jalapeno plant a few weeks ago and there were LOADS of ripe jalapeños on it, and I suddenly realised that I needed to use them. I found this recipe in a book that my sister has but I have no idea what that book is called. I have changed the recipe a bit anyway, mainly by leaving out the caraway seeds that the recipe called for because I think caraway seeds are one of the only flavours that I truly cannot stand.


2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup water
1 tsp dried marjoram leaves
2 bay leaves
1/2 tbs salt
1 tsp cracked black pepper
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2cm thick slices
12 jalapeño chiles, cut into 1/2cm thick slices
1 medium onion cut into wedges, layers separated
5 garlic cloves peeled and chopped in half

Place the vinegar, lime juice, water, marjoram, bay leaves, salt and pepper in a pot, and bring to the boil. Add the carrots, jalapeños, onion and garlic. Return to boiling, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, or until the veggies start to go soft. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Put the cooled mixture into glass jars and refrigerate. Serve them with Mexican foods as an accompaniment. According to the recipe they will keep for several weeks in the fridge but I have my doubts that they will be around that long in my house...
Ruth's serving suggestion: eat them with tortillas and chicken.

Semi-Dried Tomatoes

Before

After

I love semi-dried tomatoes, but they can be kinda expensive, so whenever I see tomatoes for cheap I make my own. The veg shop up the road often has trays of them on the clearance table, I think these are the best ones to use anyway because they are really ripe and juicy.

Tomatoes - as many as you want
Salt
Olive oil
5-6 fresh basil leaves
1-2 garlic cloves

Chop the tomatoes into wedges. I usually chop them into 12 wedges, the smaller they are the less time they take to cook.
Lay out the tomatoes on a wire rack, on top of a baking sheet. This way the bottom of the tomatoes won't go all mushy. Sprinkle them with salt. Put in an oven at about 150C and leave for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, rotate the trays, and if you feel like it, turn over the tomatoes. Put back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until they are looking a bit dried out and the colour has turned to a deep red.
Once they are cool, put them into a container with the garlic and basil leaves. Pour on some olive oil - I never cover them completely, but put in a fair amount. Storre them in the fridge. Yum!

Museli

This is another one of my mum's recipes. It is totally addictive. And, the cashews always seem to vanish before the museli is gone. In my present anaemic state, I have created a high-iron version, but its pretty much the same as my mum's.


6 c traditional rolled oats
1 1/2 c shredded coconut
1 1/2 c sesame seeds
1 1/2 c sunflower seeds
1 c pepitas
1 c raw cashews
1/2 c linseeds
any other nuts or seeds you feel like adding

1/2 c olive oil
1/2c honey or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to about 150C, or if your oven is crazy like mine, 125C.
In a large bowl or pot, mix together all of the dry ingredients.
If you are using honey, put it into the microwave for about 30 seconds on medium heat, or just until its runny. Mix it with the olive oil and vanilla, and then pour it over the dry mixture. Stir it really well, making sure that all the oats and nuts are covered.
Spread the mixture over a baking sheet. Don't spread it too thick - you will probably end up covering 3-4 sheets. Put the sheets in the oven, and leave for 15-20 minutes. Turn, and leave for another 10-15 minutes, or until the mixture is golden. Remove from the oven and leave in the tray to cool. By cooling it in the tray, the museli will harden into chunky, crunchy bits as well as smaller pieces.
My family likes to eat this with yoghurt and maple syrup, but you should eat it however you like!

Spaghetti Sauce

This is my version of my mum's Spaghetti Sauce, which she invented when she was about 12 years old. Her mum passed away when she was 9 and she was left in charge of her dad and little brother. I have changed it a bit over the years, but its more or less the same. It still tastes best when my dad makes it and I'm not quite sure what he does to it to get it like that.

1 medium sized onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste), minced
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 small tin of tomato paste
or
2 heaping tablespoons of tomato paste
1/4 c. water
2 tins of tomatoes

Sautee in a pan with the olive oil over medium heat. When the onion is soft, add the garlic. Don't let the garlic burn - it tastes gross. Add the basil and oregano, and then the tomato paste and water. Turn the heat down low and let it simmer for 5 minutes, making sure not to let it burn.
Add the tins of tomatoes, bring to the boil and then turn the heat down. Leave the lid slightly off and simmer for as long as you possibly can - the longer you leave it, the better it will taste. If you used whole tomatoes, mash them with a potato masher once it has been cooking for a while.
Serve it with fresh basil and oregano and parmesan cheese!