Earlier this year I made it one of my goals to make sure I cook the gorgeous recipes I bookmark on Pinterest. Today I’m pleased to say I’m keeping that goal, and it feels really good. Turns out it tastes good too.

I’m currently holidaying at my in-laws, and with all the extra pairs of hands to watch Poppy, I’ve got mine free for a spot of baking.

I specifically bookmarked this slice on Pinterest because it’s gluten free and caters to my MILs dietary needs. Now that I’m staying at her place, I can use her as my GF taste tester as well as bake it as a thank you gift for her hospitality. Win, win.

The original recipe used apricots but I’ve switched it to pears and made a few other small adjustments – like glazing with a locally made fig, ginger and walnut jam. I just can’t help myself with tweaking recipes, it’s some sort of addiction, I’m telling you.

The end result is a super moist cake with a slight tang from the yoghurt and my official GF taste tester, Angela, was pleased with the fact that it wasn’t dry and crumbly like other GF cakes. It was moist, easy to slice and held together beautifully. I think I’ll give myself a pat on the back for this one.

Do you prefer moist or light and fluffy cakes?

Christie x

Gluten free pear and almond slice recipe

based on a recipe by the gluten free scallywag.

• 130g unsalted butter, softened
• 125g brown sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 2 large eggs
• 40g moist coconut flakes
• 85g plain gluten free flour
• 160g almond meal (ground almonds)
• 220g gluten free natural yoghurt
• 6 pear quarters, tinned or ripe fresh ones, peeled and cored
• 2 tablespoons fig and ginger jam (or apricot jam)

1.  Preheat the oven to 170C/340F and line a 30cm x 15cm rectangular slice tray with baking paper.

2. Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until thick and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each one.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut, gluten free flour and almond meal. Add the dry mixture to the wet batter in batches alternating with the yoghurt, folding the mixture using a large metal spoon until just combined. Try not to over mix.

4. Pour the batter into the slice tray and smooth out. Press the pears, core side up, gently into the batter. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, but a little moist.

5. Warm the jam in a small saucepan until runny and then brush over the cake. Allow to cool completely before serving with fresh cream, gluten free vanilla yoghurt or ice cream. Cake is pictured above with natural yoghurt.

Some nights you just want to get dinner on the table quickly. I mean, really quickly. On night’s like those I always turn to stir fries. Especially vegetarian ones.

Stir fries, for me, are never boring. There are just so many combinations of vegetables, spices and herbs that can come together quickly to create dinner in minutes. A dinner that tastes great and is good for you too.

I’m always trying to reduce the amount of meat our family eats and love the challenge of going vegetarian for one whole day every week. It’s easier than you might think, but if a whole day is a bit daunting, then maybe try dinner or lunch to get you started.

This mushroom stir fry actually has quite a “meaty” texture, well, they obviously don’t call mushrooms meat for vegetarians for nothing! It helped me use up a few ingredients I had in my fridge (thai green curry paste, ginger) and was beautiful served over basmati rice, which I prefer because it has a lower GI than jasmine or short grain varieties. It also works well mixed with egg noodles or served in crisp lettuce cups, san choy bau-style.

When I’ve made it on other occasions I’ve also thrown in some marinated tofu chunks, broccoli, spinach or bean sprouts. Feel free to add your favourite vegetables too, it’s a very versatile recipe.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

How about you? Do you actively try to eat more vegetarian meals?

Christie x

Quick Thai-inspired mushroom stir fry

serves 2 (can be doubled or trebled)

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
• 1/2 red capsicum (red bell pepper), sliced into strips
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, thick centre stem removed, leaves finely sliced
• 250g mixed mushrooms (I used shiitake, enoki, oyster and king brown), cleaned and sliced
• 1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari to make this gluten free)
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• steamed rice, to serve

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large frying pan (skillet) over medium heat. Add the capsicum and cook for 5 minutes until softened.

2. Add the garlic, ginger and kaffir lime leaves and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the green curry paste and stir to coat all the ingredients in the paste.

3. Turn up the heat to high and add the mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes until browned and wilted. Splash in the sesame oil and soy sauce and stir well. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with steamed rice.

Not only is this the easiest salad in the world, but it can also be the tastiest if made with home grown vegetables.

I was lucky enough to score a beautifully crisp and slightly bitter home grown cucumber and knew this was the only way it could be served.

The fresh little cucumber was sliced and mingled with vine ripened tomato, splashed with a little olive oil and white balsamic vinegar, then finished with a luxurious sprinkling of truffle salt. Perfection.

Let the salad sit while you make the rest of your dinner (whatever that may be) and basque in the glory of freshly picked goodness.

Do you have a quick go-to salad?

Christie x

Tomato and cucumber salad

serves 2 as a side dish (easily doubled, trebled or more)

1 medium cucumber
1 large vine ripened tomato
1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
pinch truffle salt (or regular salt)

1. Slice the cucumber and tomato and place into a shallow bowl.

2. Splash over the vinegar and oil and sprinkle with truffle salt. Mix gently and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

This was a case of “what the hell am I going to make for dinner?”.

Hubby had just arrived home from work, Poppy had been fed her dinner and I would usually have something bubbling on the stove – but that evening I had nothing. I hadn’t even prepped any veggies. There was simply nothing on the horizon.

“What’s for dinner?” said hubby.

“I don’t know!” I said. Hubby raised his eyebrows. It was weird. He knows I usually think about what’s for dinner all afternoon and even if I haven’t started it I have a pretty good idea about what it’s going to be.

I dug around in the freezer and found a half kilo bag of lamb mince.

“Something with lamb mince?” I shouted from the kitchen, still poking around to see if there was anything else more inspirational. Nope. Lamb mince it was going to be.

We had eaten pasta the previous night, so that was out. We’d eaten couscous the night before, so that was also out. Then I spotted some potatoes in the pantry that were in dire need of cooking (the white eyes were starting to look more like eyelashes, if you know what I mean!).

I contemplated boiling and slicing the potatoes to place on top of the mince stew but then realised I had some nice firm mozzarella in the fridge that would go beautifully bubbly and crisp over a mashed topping.

The dinner conundrum was solved and shortly thereafter these gorgeous little blue pots of deliciousness were ready for their close up. As I photographed them, wanting so much to dive into their saucy centres, I found it hard to believe they were dreamed up a mere hour earlier!

Do you poke around in the freezer for dinner inspiration?

Christie x

Spicy lamb and potato bake recipe

serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, diced
1/2 red capsicum (bell pepper), diced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
200g swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
500g lamb mince
pinch (or two) dried chilli flakes
pinch dried mint
pinch ground white pepper
salt
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste (concentrated puree)

For the topping
1 kg potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon salted butter
splash of milk
100g firm mozzarella cheese, grated

1. Heat a large deep frying pan (skillet) over medium heat. Add the olive oil and onion and saute until starting to brown. Add the capsicum and cook for a few minutes until it softens and starts to brown. Throw in the garlic and mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes.

2. Push all the veggies to one side in the pan, turn the heat up high and add the lamb mince. Using a wooden spoon break it up as much as you can and mix the veggies into it. Allow to brown well for a few minutes before stirring. Cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until really browned all over and starting to stick to the bottom of the pan with tasty caramelised bits.

3. Add the spices, pepper and salt and stir well. Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato paste and stir well. Turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened slightly.

4. Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes then drain and mash with the butter and milk. Leave it a little chunky, it doesn’t have to be super smooth.

5. Ladel the lamb sauce into a 1L oven-proof dish or evenly into 4 x 1 cup ramekins. Spoon over the mashed potato and press down slightly with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese bubbles and browns. Serve with buttered veggies and crusty bread.

I’m naming this the ‘All-star breakfast’ because almost every ingredient is a famous gourmet brand. It features:

1. McLean’s Run Free Range Eggs
2. Pepe Saya Butter
3. Bourke St Bakery Personal Sourdough
4. My marinated mushrooms – OK, they’re not famous, but this blog kinda is :)

This dish turned a rainy weekend morning into quite a scrumptious affair and even baby Poppy gobbled up a portion, impressing me with her complex palate. The mushrooms were quite vinegary and covered in dill which is not something I would normally feed her, except she saw us eating it and wanted in on the action!

Once the mushrooms have been marinated, this takes only a few minutes from pan to plate, so even the most hung-over cook will easily whip it up. Just remember to pop the mushrooms into their marinade the night before and you’ll be livin’ on easy street.

Enjoy!

Christie x

Fig & Cherry received the eggs with compliments of McLean’s Run and One Green Bean (thanks Laura!) and the butter with compliments from Pepe Saya and Liquid Ideas (thanks Georgia!).

Marinated mushroom scrambled eggs recipe

serves 2

1 tablespoon butter
200g marinated mushrooms
4 eggs
splash of milk
salt and pepper
toasted sourdough, to serve

1. Melt the butter in a medium frying pan over high heat. Add the mushrooms and fry for 2-3 mins until lightly browned.

2. Whisk the eggs and milk together and season with salt and pepper. Pour into the pan and tilt the pan to coat. Drag the cooked egg from the edges to the centre until all the mixture is almost cooked to your liking. Take off the heat as it will continue to cook from residual heat.

3. Serve immediately on toasted sourdough that has been slathered with more butter.

Last week I attended an event on ‘The Island‘, Sydney Harbour to celebrate Maille mustard retailing in Australia for 30 years (which seems like a long time, however, the company was established in France in 1747, so the brand is actually older than Australia has been a colonised country!).

There was plenty of food to complement the mustard such as smoked salmon, potato salad, crumbed veal and a sausage sizzle cooked by Hayden (of Masterchef fame) but the most surprising and outstanding dish of the day was definitely the chocolate lava cake with a mustard and honey centre.

Who would have thought mustard and chocolate would work? Not me! When I got back to the office I tweeted and facebook-ed about the cake and had an overwhelming response. Some were curious about the taste, others the cooking technique and some were just straight up bold enough to demand the recipe!

Well, I’m happy to report that I have received permission to print it. Full instructions at the end of this post.

One last thing about the day that I am very chuffed about is a special pot of mustard I received in my goodie bag – you can see it there in the picture above – the little ceramic pot in the bottom left hand corner. It’s an exclusive Dijon mustard made with chablis wine and absolutely no preservatives.

This special mustard is only available in Maille boutiques in Paris and Dijon and was flown into Sydney especially for the 30th anniversary event. So now you know why I am so pleased to have it in my hot little hands… and it will only be good for three months, so expect a few mustard recipes appearing on here shortly. Until then, give this unusual dessert a try, I’m sure you will love it.

Christie x

Photographs taken by Esteban La Tessa, courtesy of 360 Focus. Thanks also to Gail and Kathee for organising a great event!

Dark chocolate lava cake with a molten Maille Dijon mustard and honey centre

serves 8

250g 70% cocoa dark chocolate
180g butter
20g rice flour
20g cocoa powder
8 egg yolks
8 egg whites
120g sugar

Molten centre
50g Maille Dijon mustard
50g honey
100ml cream

1. First, make the molten centres. Mix together the cream, mustard and honey in a small bowl. Fill an ice cube tray with the mixture and place into the freezer until completely frozen.

2. Next, make the cakes. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (heat proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water – make sure the bowl never touches the water or the mixture will seize). Whisk the egg yolks with the rice flour and cocoa until well combined. Pour in the melted butter and chocolate and stir gently.

3. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks, then gradually add the sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks. This is best done with a stand or hand held mixer. Carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolate mix trying to retain as much air as possible.

4. Line eight small ramekins (8cm x 2cm) with baking paper and thoroughly butter the insides. Divide chocolate mixture evenly between them and then push a mustard and honey ice cube into the centre of each one. Make sure the chocolate mix completely covers the ice cubes.

5. Bake on the centre shelf for 7 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes before carefully removing the cakes. Enjoy!

Hands up who loves Tupperware? My hand is up. All the way up.

I am one of those freaks that needs to have everything in a container. My pantry is neatly stacked with everything decanted. My husbands ‘lunch box’ is a series of different containers filled with treats.

My fridge has all leftovers placed into individual containers: nuts are stacked on one shelf and half-cans of beans, beetroot and olives decanted and stacked on another shelf. Even cheese is taken out of its nasty plastic wrap and placed inside a container, sometimes wrapped in greaseproof paper, if necessary. Yes, I’m pedantic.

What can I say? I like keeping food fresh and I hate throwing things away because they go bad in the back of the fridge. Hate it. Therefore Tupperware (and other storage ranges) are my friends. Best friends.

I used to love going to Tupperware parties with my Mum when I was little. They were terribly exciting – the way the hostess would demonstrate everything and serve party food like dips, cocktail onions on a stick and other 80s culinary delights (Jatz and cheese, anyone?).

I remember excitedly helping my Mum fill out the order form and then going home after the party a little sad with nothing to show for it. Back in those days you had to wait, what seemed like ages, for your parcel to arrive with all the goodies.

These days, thanks to this blog, I am lucky to be sent products to review (so I get parcels with goodies all the time!) and I could not be happier when this new Ultra Pro Tupperware range arrived at my office. These little beauties can be used as a casserole dish in the oven and then popped into the freezer for reheating another day. Very clever and very convenient! Especially for busy Mums.

The design is also very modern (not 70s brown!) and the rounded handles make it easy to lift in and out of the oven and freezer. Let’s not forget the best part – less washing up! Plus (and this is a BIG plus), it’s easy for hubby to grab out of the freezer and place in the oven for dinner. Perfect for lazy Sunday evenings or mid-week exhaustion nights when baby Poppy has been very active.

If you have just celebrated Halloween and have a fair amount of pumpkin leftover, this could be just the dish for dinner tonight. Happy cooking!

Christie x

Fig & Cherry received the Tupperware Ultra Pro range with compliments from Tupperware Australia and Undertow Media.

Ginger chicken and pumpkin casserole recipe

serves 4

This recipe uses the Tupperware Ultra Pro range, but you can just as easily use a regular casserole dish with a lid.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 brown onion, sliced into half moons
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 x thumb-sized pieces of ginger root, peeled and coarsely grated
500g chicken thigh fillets, diced
500g pumpkin (whole weight with skin still on)
250ml chicken stock, hot
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
pinch of ground white pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. Heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large frying pan and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring often until starting to brown around the edges. Add the mixture to the casserole dish.

2. Heat another tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and add the diced chicken. Brown on all sides for 5 minutes and add to the casserole dish.

3. Peel, de-seed and dice the pumpkin into bite-sized chunks. Add to the casserole dish along with the stock, soy sauce, mirin, sesame seeds and white pepper. Stir well, then cover with the lid and place on the middle shelf in the oven.

4. Bake for 30-40 mins until the chicken is cooked through, the pumpkin is tender and the sauce is slightly reduced. It will be a thin, soup-y sauce. Serve with steamed rice or noodles.

Today is the second part of my interview with KitchenAid’s home economist Jo Richardson. If you missed the first part yesterday then click here to read it.

Jo is particularly passionate about gluten free baking and many of my readers are looking for gluten free recipes and cooking tips, so I thought it would be a good idea to pick her brains all about it! Not to mention my mother-in-law is following a gluten free diet, so she had some great questions for me to ask Jo too.

Don’t scroll to the end just yet, but there is Jo’s fantastic gluten free brownie recipe down there that I have made three batches of, and each one turned out perfectly. That’s a picture of the gorgeous little things above.

Jo, how did you get into gluten free baking as one of your niche specialties?

Well it’s been a world of discovery for me. My boy was born very unwell and it became obvious that he was not digesting anything properly. We found out, from a very young age, that he was very allergic to wheat and gluten. We’ve come a long way now, but 14 years ago a diagnosis like that was quite new, so I started having a play around with recipes. I had to, because gluten free food back then was awful and I just had to come up with a way to make it better.

It was a huge challenge and I did think at first it was going to be easy by just substituting regular flour with rice flour or whatever, but the results were shocking! And I thought, this is disgusting, I can’t eat that, so I just got into the kitchen and played and played and played. Trial and error. By the time he was a toddler going to birthday parties I was much better and over the years I’ve refined my recipes even more.

So you can’t just substitute regular flour for gluten free flour in recipes? Damn, that would be too easy. Why not?

Everyone knows that wheat is very strong as a particle. In baking it adds colour, it adds flavour, it adds texture and it also tenderises. So when you take wheat out of something, it changes a hundred and one dynamics of it. I had to really experiment with lots of different ingredients to get similar results.

What’s an example of an unusual ingredient that works well for you?

I like to go back to lots of old fashioned techniques and did you know that during the war there was actually a time when potato was used in pastry? It was when there was a butter shortage and so that’s where the idea came from to make my gluten free potato pastry. The potato works to bind it as well as help with the flavour and texture.

Tell us about gluten free flour. What is it and are there ones that are better than others?

In the beginning I found it very difficult to take some rice flour then add some cornflour and tapioca or arrowroot flour – there was all these flours and it was so confusing! Then to top it all off just by adding 20g more or less of one or the other and you would totally change the end consistency. It was very frustrating and completely dumfounding to me and many others so I just searched for what was available commercially.

The secret to great gluten free baking and cooking is to really love the gluten free flour combination that you use and the brands vary a lot so it’s well worth buying a few and trying them out. The one I absolutely love is by a company called Vitarium and it’s found in health food stores. There’s nothing extraordinary in it, just rice flour, cornflour and tapioca but they have got the balance just right. That’s the secret.

Why do gluten free cakes and breads sometimes taste so dry (and inedible!)?

That’s because they have far too much rice flour in them. Again, it comes down to a delicate balance of the elements; rice flour is very drying and adds bulk, cornflour gives you a bouncy texture and tapioca or arrowroot gives you pull and stretchiness. These elements need to be kept in ind when you are deciding on quantities.

What is xanthan gum and how do you incorporate it into gluten free recipes?

You need to add xanthan gum or another product which is known as gluten substitute to mirror wheat protein. You see, wheat protein is the most remarkable glue, it’s like cement, and when you remove that cement (as in, the wheat) from recipes they just don’t have the structure and won’t set. Instead, they go all crumbly and dry. Xanthan gum is made from fermented corn syrup and has a rubber chemical reaction that provides the glue in place of wheat. It is actually twenty two times stronger than wheat flour and is so strong it’s like real cement! Therefore, you only need a tiny amount to add back that much needed structure in gluten free recipes. Without it your dishes will probably fall apart.

Are there any of your recipes that really stand out for you?

I’m really proud of my gluten free recipes and a lot of people that I get to taste them really can’t believe it’s gluten free. I recently did some recipe development for an article in a magazine making gluten free pizza and there were some real big hotshot food editors there and they were absolutely gobsmacked that what I served them was gluten free. I worked very hard at getting the texture and flavour just right. Unfortunately I can’t share the recipe yet because it’s going to be published exclusively on the KitchenAid website in the coming months.

Thanks Jo it has been absolutely fascinating learning about gluten free baking – I was especially interested to hear about xanthan gum and loved cooking with it in your brownie recipe (see below). Delicious!  

Christie x

Fig & Cherry received the KitchenAid Artisan Mixer with compliments of KitchenAid.

Fudgy Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies

Recipe by Jo Richardson on behalf of KitchenAid

250g butter, chopped
250g good quality dark chocolate (gluten free)
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup gluten free plain flour
1 teaspoon cocoa
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
3 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoon caster sugar
100g toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Extra cocoa and icing sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Grease and paper line 5cm deep x 18cm square pan.

2. Heat butter, chocolate, brown sugar and vanilla in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly until smooth, melted and glossy. Set aside to cool.

3. Attach the flat beater to the standmixer with the pouring shield. Mix the flour, cocoa and gum on speed1 until well combined, remove from the mixing bowl.

4. Attach the whisk to the standmixer. Whisk eggs and sugar on speed 6 until thick and creamy. Reduce to speed 2, add the cooled chocolate mixture and flour and mix until combined. Add the nuts and fold through.

5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes or until just set. Set aside to cool completely.

6. Dust with extra cocoa and icing sugar. Cut as desired.

I’m really quite partial to a savoury muffin. They’re much better than a boring slice of toast for dunking into soup and they soak up gravy with gusto.

However, the best way to eat them is warm, sliced in half and slathered with good butter. No accompanying meal required.

These feature polenta which provides a lovely flavour and texture, plus the addition of sour cream makes them very rich and moreish. They are one of the muffins I’ve recently created for Vitasoy and are actually a nice change from the sweet turkish delight muffins I’ve been experimenting with.

If you move quickly you can have these all mixed up, oven baked and in your mouth in less than half an hour. So what are you waiting for? Get in the kitchen and enjoy!

Christie x

This recipe content is proudly sponsored by Vitasoy.

Savoury fetta and olive muffins recipe

makes 10 small muffins

1 cup (180g) fine-grain instant polenta
1/2 cup (60g) gluten free plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bi-carb soda / baking soda
1 1/2 cups (300g) sour cream
1/4 cup (80ml) Vitasoy original soymilk*
2 eggs, lightly beaten
12 olives, pitted and chopped (I used a mixture of green and black)
6 semi-dried tomato quarters, chopped
50g fetta cheese
freshly cracked pepper
flat leaf parsley sprigs, to garnish (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin.

2. Place the polenta, flour, bi-carb soda and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, add the sour cream, soy milk, eggs, olives, tomatoes, fetta and pepper and mix until well combined.

4. Pour the polenta mixture into the sour cream mixture and stir until just combined. Don’t over mix or the muffins will turn out chewy.

5. Spoon into the muffin holes and garnish with parsley, if using. Bake on the middle shelf for 16-18 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool slightly on a wire rack and enjoy warm. They can also be reheated the next day in a low oven.

*Regular cows milk may be substituted, if you prefer.

Even though we’ve had some sunny Winter days, there is still a chill in the morning air, which means porridge is a very enticing breakfast option.

If you’re in the northern hemisphere then muesli will be a more likely choice, but everyone is in luck, because this compote goes equally well with both!

It can even masquerade as a dessert over ice cream, if you’re so inclined, although we’ll be eating it with porridge this week.

Believe it or not, it took me quite a few years to convince my hubby to start eating porridge. He was, understandably, turned off it after working in a cafe that made theirs in the microwave (they also scrambled eggs in the microwave!). Luckily, he finally found out that my stovetop version is much nicer and even better with a spoonful or two of this compote.

Compote is essentially fruit poached in a sugar syrup. This one uses Ocean Spray juices and a mix of dried fruit to create a sweet, yet substantial breakfast topper. The picture above shows it served with muesli and yoghurt.

If you have any leftover syrup it is lovely whizzed up in the blender with some ice cubes and milk. Enjoy!

Christie x

This recipe was developed by Fig & Cherry for Ocean Spray as sponsored content.

Cranberry dried fruit compote recipe

serves 4

60g (1/2 cup) dried apricots
150g (about 6) dried figs
60g (1/2 cup) Ocean Spray Craisins
60g (about 10) prunes
250ml (1 cup) Ocean Spray Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice
250ml (1 cup) Ocean Spray Cranberry Classic Juice

1. Place all the dried fruit in a large, wide saucepan. Pour over both the juices and bring to the boil over high heat.

2. Boil for 15-20 minutes until the fruit is plumped up and soft and the liquid is reduced by half. It should thicken slightly and become syrupy. Skim off any foamy bits, if necessary.

3. Serve with muesli, porridge or thick yoghurt.

UPDATE 15/8/11: This competition is now closed. Congratulations to Karina, Amanda and Seana.

The lemon sauce that accompanies this duck breast is not for the faint hearted; it is jam-packed with sour lemony goodness. If you’re not that keen on lemons, I’d give the sauce a miss, although you could add more sugar – but where’s the fun in that?

The rich, fatty lusciousness of duck needs a nice tart sauce to cut through it and these Game Farm duck breasts I was sent recently are no exception.

But duck and sauce are not a complete meal! So when I spotted a super fresh bunch of mizuna at Marrickville Farmers Market on the weekend, I just knew it was destined to be stir fried with garlic and served alongside some crispy duck. Voila! Dinner is served.

Game Farm Competition

Do you cook much with duck and other game poultry? I think it’s safe to say that not many people do. Well the lovely folks at Game Farm are keen to change that. They have kindly supplied a delicious prize pack full of fresh produce for THREE lucky Fig & Cherry readers.

Each one will have all this yummy game poultry inside…

• 1 x 4 pack quail
• 1 x whole spatchcock
• 1 x pack of 2 duck breast fillets
• 1 x pack of cornfed chicken breast fillets
• 1x Game Farm recipe book

How to enter

As always, this competition is exclusively for newsletter subscribers, so if you’re not signed up yet then do so now! Simply pop your name and email address into the fields up there in the top right hand corner. Easy.

Then, simply leave a comment below answering the question stated in the email newsletter that will be sent out on Friday 5th August 2011.

Good luck everyone!

Christie x

Duck breast with sumac lemon sauce and garlic mizuna recipe

serves 2

2 duck breasts (440g)
2 lemons, juiced (100ml)
1 teaspoon sumac
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) chicken stock
1 teaspoon plain flour
2 bunches mizuna (200g), roots chopped off, washed and dried
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1. For the duck: Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. Place the duck breasts, skin-side down in an oven-proof, non-stick frypan (skillet) over medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes until the skin is very crisp, then turn over. Drain off the fat and keep aside. Place the frypan in the oven for 8-10 minutes then remove and cover with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

2. For the sauce: Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the lemon juice, sumac, sugar and stock and bring to the boil. Put the flour in a mug and add two tablespoons of the sauce and whisk quickly to make a thin paste. Pour back into the saucepan and stir quickly to combine. Boil for five minutes further until thickened slightly.

3. For the greens: Heat another frypan over medium heat and add two tablespoons of reserved duck fat. Add the garlic and fry for 1 minute until starting to brown. Throw in the mizuna and cook for 2 minutes until just wilted.

4. Divide the mizuna between two serving plates then top with thick slices of duck breast. Pour over the sauce and serve.

Fig & Cherry received fresh produce for this recipe with compliments of Game Farm Gourmet Club and DEC Communications. This competition, as with all competitions on Fig & Cherry, is client sponsored.

When I saw this recipe for peanut butter biscuits on Eating Out Loud I got very excited.

Why? Biscuits. 3 ingredients. Gluten free. See?

Allen‘s recipes always work a treat, but only three ingredients in a biscuit recipe sounded outrageously undoable (a word?), and then also gluten free – that was just too much for my curious mind. I had to bake them.

A little too dark, a little too light, ahhh, just right.

Being a pretty average baker, and only having made biscuits once before, I needed three batches to get them right and they still didn’t look as beautiful as Allen’s (see here).

Never mind, they tasted great. And only three ingredients; sugar, peanut butter, egg. Amazing. They weren’t crumbly and shortbread-y because there was no butter, but the texture was really lovely and crunchy and strong with the taste of yummy peanut butter. Thanks Allen!

I thought I would get a little fancy with these simple biscuits and jazz them up with a drizzle of icing.

I was recently sent a new product by Queen – a packet of pre-mixed Royal Icing. You simply add water then whisk and it’s ready to use for decorating. I don’t like using artificial colours so I coloured it with two tablespoons of beetroot water (water that beetroot had been boiled in, you can also use the canned stuff) and it turned a delightful pink.

If you are really in the mood for peanut butter now, and don’t fancy biscuits, then my chocolate and ANZAC ice cream sandwiches or my peanut butter and jelly smoothie should satisfy your craving instead.

On a side note, I bookmarked this recipe on my Pinterest account and it has been re-pinned 14 times! I guess there are lots of people out there looking for GF biscuits.

Until next time, happy cooking!

Christie x

Peanut butter cookies

recipe by Eating Out Loud

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Royal icing, optional

1. Blend all the ingredients and shape into walnut sized balls.

2. Place on a cookie sheet and squish down with the back side of a fork (I found that using three fingers placed flat over the ball worked well too).

3. Bake in a 180C/350F oven for 8-10 minutes then cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate with royal icing, if desired.

This is a play on the American favourite sandwich combination of ‘peanut butter and jelly’ – in a liquid version. It’s super quick, super yummy and sure to super-charge you for the day!

Of course the ‘jelly’ element is actually what we call ‘jam’ here in Australia. ‘Jelly’ for us is ‘Jello’ for Americans. Confused yet?

This smoothie uses Vitasoy Soy Milky Lite making it a quick and healthy breakfast that is vegetarian, vegan, gluten free. Not to mention, super easy to slurp up before you rush out the door. I had it for breakfast the other day along with a crumpet and I was full until lunch time.

Give it a try! I’d love to hear if you think it really does taste like a PB&J sandwich!

Fig & Cherry received soy milk product with compliments from Vitasoy to experiment with for this recipe. Fig & Cherry is working with Vitasoy as an ambassador and recipe developer for their products.

Christie x

Peanut butter & jelly smoothie

serves 2

1 ripe banana
2 tablespoons strawberry jam
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
300ml Vitasoy Soy Milky
handful of ice
blueberries, to garnish (optional) (I used frozen ones)

Place all the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth and frothy. Serve immediately in tall glasses garnished with blueberries, if you like.

I posted this recipe last week on my Mummy blog but would like to share it here with you too.

My inspiration for this combination came from my friends son Jed who is a budding little Masterchef at the tender age of 2 and 3/4!

Click here to read about him and get the recipe.

Have a great Sunday afternoon!

Christie x

I am really excited to share this kitchen appliance with you as it is not often that new versions of appliances really push the boundaries.

Sometimes new features are added, like a light or a cordless version. Sometimes they re-jig the design to make it look better without actually adding anything to the user experience (other than make you want to display it on your kitchen counter because it is so shiny/pretty/pink!).

You’ll agree when I say that slow cookers are not easy to sex-up. However, this new one from Breville is pretty darn exciting, in my humble opinion.

What’s so good about it? I hear you ask. OK, here’s the thing… you can remove the insert and brown things on the stove top! Ta-da!

If you haven’t used a slow cooker before then you’ll probably be rolling your eyes saying ‘so what?’, but if you use them regularly, you’ll know that this feature is pure genius.

Slow cooker-lovers (like me) know how annoying it is to have to brown things in a pan and then transfer them to the slow cooker. It means there is another pan to wash up (uggh!) and all the precious yummy, sticky browned bits are still stuck to the pan that’s going in the wash (double uggh!).

The clever design has silicone handles to make it easy to lift in and out (and non slip too!) although they can still get quite hot so you’ll need a tea towel or some mits for the transfer.

As you can see it browns chops nicely. These are being used in a yummy Moroccan-inspired casserole.

Keep scrolling to see the full progression and get the recipe at the bottom.

Nothing to do with the slow cooker, I just thought this was a pretty shot with all the fresh colours.

Ditto the textures in this shot.

You could transfer the chops to a plate – but then you’d have to wash it up! Better to just push them to the side and keep going.

OK, it’s ready to start bubbling away on low heat for most of the day.

Voila! All soft and juicy and super-duper flavoursome because none of the precious stock has evaporated away.

Plated up. Not the best shot as the light had long faded.

Thank you so much to Roberta for sending this to me for testing! It is perfect timing as the weather has become terribly chilly in the last few weeks.

Slow cookers are so versatile and I am really looking forward to trying to bake a dessert or maybe make a roast in it. Will post my results here, of course. If you are looking for more slow cooker recipes check out my homemade baked beans, sweet beef curry or chicken soup recipes.

Do you have a slow cooker? What do you like to make in it? Please share your links in the comments!

Happy cooking! Christie x

Disclosure: Fig & Cherry received the Breville Flavour Maker Slow Cooker with compliments of Breville and Write Away Communications.

Moroccan-inspired lamb casserole slow cooker recipe

serves 4-6

4 lamb chops
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small carrot
1/2 red capsicum (pepper)
1 stick celery
1 brown onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cups pumpkin (peeled and chopped into big chunks)
400g can chickpeas
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, lemon peel, orange peel)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 litre lamb stock (or beef or veggie stock)

1. Place the slow cooker insert onto the stove top over medium heat. Add the olive oil and brown the lamb chops on both sides.

2. While they are browning, chop the carrot, capsicum, celery and onion into 1cm dice. It doesn’t matter if they are roughly chopped. Finely slice the garlic.

3. Move the lamb chops to one side of the pot (or remove them to a plate, but then you’ll have to wash it up!) and add all the chopped vegetables, except the pumpkin. Cook until they start to soften, about 5 minutes, or so.

4. Add the pumpkin, chickpeas, dried fruit, spices and mix everything together with a wooden spoon. Add the lamb stock and top up with water if you need to so that the liquid almost covers the vegetables and meat.

5. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. You can even leave it in there for 10 hours (as in, all day while you are at work). Serve with cous cous or rice.

It doesn’t look like much but this is the most wonderful dessert after a big meal!

Or any meal for that matter.

The caramel is an adaptation of my crazy concoction of Vegemite caramel (which is delicious, by the way) using Vitasoy soymilk instead of cream. White miso paste replaces the Vegemite and works really well to give the sweet caramel a savoury edge.

Serving the caramel with the pineapple was stolen from the fabulous Albert Adria (yes, the brother of Ferran of El Bulli fame).

In 2009 I went to Albert’s amazing tapas bar in Barcelona, Inopia, and had the sweetest, juiciest pineapple drizzled with perfect caramel. See picture above.

It was a heavenly way to end what can only be described as a gluttonous feast of tapas and I dearly wish I can get back to Barcelona again one day to enjoy the sun, people, food and sangria.

Happy cooking, Christie x

Miso-soy caramel with fresh pineapple recipe

serves 4

1 pineapple
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
40g unsalted butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup Vitasoy original soymilk (or pouring cream)
2 teaspoons white miso paste

1. Slice the pineapple into quarters lengthways. Place a quarter skin side down on a work surface and using a small sharp knife, carefully slice through the flesh along the skin so that the flesh comes away in one piece. Leave the flesh sitting in the skin and cut downwards along the flesh to create large cubes. See picture above for reference. Set aside while you make the caramel.

2. Add the caster sugar and water to a large saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. It’s important to use a large pot because the caramel can spit. Once the sugar dissolves, simmer on low heat without stirring until it becomes a light brown caramel colour.

3. Remove from the heat and add the butter and brown sugar and stir vigorously until dissolved. Carefully (it may spit!) add the soymilk and stir until smooth.

4. Cool slightly for about 5 minutes then add the miso paste and stir until well combined and glossy. Serve immediately drizzled over the pineapple.

Remember last week when I received those pears to cook with? This is what I made!

This recipe has now been entered into a competition run by PR company Impact Communications and will be judged by David Bitton. I’m a big fan of his lovely cafe in Alexandria so it’s a bit nerve-wracking, to say the least.

Autumn is the perfect time to get cosy with a steaming bowl of soup. As the weather gets colder it’s nice to indulge in richer ingredients like blue cheese and have a bit of fun by doing something different with seasonal fruit, like chargrilling it.

Or if you have simple tastes, like my five month old daughter Poppy, you simply suck on thick slices of pear that have been chilled in the fridge to soothe your teething gums. You can read more about that here.

For grown ups, chargrilling pear is an interesting flavour and texture sensation, and it offsets the strong blue cheese and slightly bitter broccoli with a welcome sweetness.

Happy cooking! Christie x

Broccoli, blue cheese and chargrilled pear soup recipe
serves 4 as a starter

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium leek, white part only, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
500g broccoli, about 2 medium heads including stems
4 Packham pears
1 litre vegetable stock or water
100ml cream
80g blue vein cheese
salt, ground white pepper, ground black pepper

1. Place a large pot over medium heat and add the olive oil, sliced leeks and garlic and saute for 5 minutes until softened, but not coloured.

2. Wash the broccoli and chop into small florets and thinly slice the stems. Add to the pot. Peel and core two of the pears. Roughly chop and add to the pot.

3. Pour in the stock or water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down a bit and gently boil for 20 minutes until the broccoli and pear are very soft.

4. Blitz with a stick blender until very smooth then remove from the heat and crumble in the cheese, pour in the cream and stir until the cheese melts and everything is well combined. Season with salt and white pepper. Keep warm.

5. Heat a chargrill pan over high heat. Chop the remaining two pears into quarters and cut out the core. Thinly slice into 1/2 cm wedges and season both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grill on both sides for a minute or so until the fruit is tender and has black/brown grill lines.

6. Serve the soup in warmed bowls topped with the chargrilled pear and toast soldiers on the side.

Last month I went to Capital Grill Restaurant to taste their pomegranate inspired menu but had to leave before dessert because my beautiful little Poppy was upset at home with her grandparents. Never mind, I have come up with a dessert of my own that features POM Wonderful pomegranate juice as a refreshing marinade.

I also deliberately made this dessert with one of my dedicated readers in mind…the InTolerant Chef. This one’s for you! I even used lactose free vanilla yoghurt.

You might think the InTolerant Chef must be hard pressed at dessert time due to her gluten and lactose intolerances, but no, she whips up lots of delicious baked goods – check out the wasabi macarons she recently made.

For this dessert, there are only four simple ingredients but it is one of those recipes where the individual parts combine together to make a fantastic whole! The pineapple is cold marinated in the pomegranate juice which stains the edges a blushing pink and adds a pleasing tartness.

The juice that is used for the marinade gets gently infused with pineapple flavour and so is perfect for using in punch or topping up with soda water for a homemade fizzy drink.

Happy cooking, Christie x

Pomegranate marinated pineapple recipe

serves 6

1 pineapple
500ml pomegranate juice (I used POM Wonderful)
6 tablespoons thick yoghurt (Greek style plain or Vanilla if you have a sweet tooth)
6 teaspoons runny honey

1. Peel the pineapple and cut into four large chunks (see pic above). You can leave it whole if you want to serve it in neat rounds.

2. Place the pineapple in a container so that it fits fairly snugly and pour over the pomegranate juice. The juice should almost cover the fruit.

3. Marinate in the fridge for 24 hours turning every so often so that all the sides are evenly coloured pink.

4. To serve, cut the pineapple into thin slices. Arrange on serving plates and top with yoghurt and honey.

Last week I posted about some Beerenberg Molasses I was gifted (thanks guys!) and put a call out as to what I should make with it.

Well I haven’t exactly taken up any of your suggestions, sorry, but I have made a yummy batch of homemade baked beans. I’ve been wanting to make these for ages and I seriously can’t believe I waited so long to make something so easy.

The recipe makes a massive amount which cannot possibly be eaten by two adults in one sitting so it’s very lucky that it freezes well and can be used for a multitude of other dishes; burritos, nachos, tacos and more. I can’t take the credit for those suggestions though, that honour goes to Mel who tweeted them to me when I announced the beans were bubbling away in the slow cooker.

Which brings me to my next point: they were made in the slow cooker. After the beans got an overnight soaking and then a quick boil, everything was thrown into the slow cooker to simmer and slowly fill the house with an intoxicating aroma.

After doing a quick search for recipes I noticed that most of them cooked the onions and garlic before adding them to the beans but I decided against that method. Instead, I whizzed the onion, garlic and some fresh ginger root up in my super cool Braun Multiquick Cordless Hand Blender that came with this mini food processor/chopping attachment (see pic above).

I have had hours of fun with this fantastic little gadget making pesto, cream cheese icing, chopping nuts in-like-2-seconds, whipping egg whites to stiff peaks in the time it takes to yawn. Brilliant. I should note I got sent it with compliments from Braun and Hausmann PR, but that’s not why I’m singing it’s praises. I’d pay its weight in gold if I had to. It is a lifesaver.

But back to the beans. I wanted to flavour them with a ham hock but then I forgot to buy one at the butcher so a few bacon rashers got tucked into the mix instead and they worked a treat! I should warn you, the beans are not sweet like Heinz, but there is a sweet note to them thanks to the molasses and cinnamon.

Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed them with a perfectly fried runny egg and some baby spinach for Saturday morning breakfast. I hope you do too!

Happy cooking, Christie x

Homemade baked beans recipe

500g dried lima beans (or dried cannellini)
1 medium brown onion
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb sized piece ginger root
2 x 400g cans diced tomatoes
3 bacon rashers
3 tablespoons molasses (I used Beerenberg Molasses)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Add the beans to a large pot and fill with cold tap water to cover 5cm above the beans. Soak overnight then drain.

2. Put the beans back into the pot and cover with fresh cold tap water. Bring to the boil and then boil rapidly for 30 minutes. Drain and put the beans into your slow cooker*.

3. Peel the onion, garlic and ginger. Roughly chop and place into a food processor or blender. Blitz until finely chopped and starting to form a paste (see picture above for a texture reference). Add the paste to the beans in the slow cooker.

4. Add the canned tomatoes to the beans and fill one of the cans with cold tap water and pour it in. Add the cinnamon, molasses bacon rashers, sugar, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

* If you don’t own a slow cooker, make this in a casserole dish that is oven safe. Follow all the steps and then bake in a low oven (160C / 320F) for 3-4 hours instead. Check it each hour to make sure the water has not evaporated too much, if it gets too dry add a little water.

Note: This makes a very large batch, but it freezes well.

I received this recipe more than a year ago and I cooked it in October 2010.

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to post about it, but I guess that is what happens when you have a newborn taking up 110% of your time! That percentage is not a typo, it really feels like more than all of the time!

But back to the recipe. I was given it by Ian, a family friend. It is his old family recipe and includes many surprising ingredients – so many, in fact, that I was quite dubious about how it would taste as I was making it.

I needn’t have worried though as it tasted delicious. Luckily, because the generous recipe means I still have about 6 portions in my freezer to enjoy for the rest of the year!

[Above: Raw curry in the slow cooker ready for its 8 hour sauna!]

You may be wondering what these surprising ingredients are? OK, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer… bananas, apples, sultanas – the apples are a particularly strange addition – don’t you think?

Despite this, it is really amazing how all the flavours meld together into one delicious flavour.

There is a lot of slicing and dicing to prepare this curry but once that is all done it is smooth sailing. Especially because I made it in the slow cooker. I simply did all the prep, then chucked it in and cooked it on low while I went out for the day. Easy.

This yummy curry is meant to be served with a special Pimms recipe – but I’ll have to post that another day.

A very special thank you to Ian for sharing this family recipe with me. I love learning cooking secrets from the past and bringing family recipes back to life to be enjoyed again. I hope you give this a try, let me know if you do!

Happy cooking, Christie x

Sweet Curry Recipe

serves 10 to 12

Credit: Original recipe by Keith Oelrichs, interpreted by his son Ian and now interpreted by me. Phew, this recipe has had a workout!

Notes: Keith and Ian suggest you make it the day before so it can be cooked 3 to 4 times or make in a pressure cooker and reheat thoroughly before serving.

I have adapted this recipe so that it is made in a slow cooker. If you would like the original stove-top recipe please send me a note via my contact form and I will email it to you.

2.5kg beef chuck steak (or any beef cut that is good for stewing)
30g Keens curry powder
20g garam masala powder
500g plain natural yoghurt

4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
4 medium carrots, diced
3 green apples, peeled and sliced into half moons
3 medium bananas, sliced
200gms sultanas
400g can chopped tomatoes

4 large brown onions, sliced into thin wedges
4 Asian shallots, sliced into thin wedges
Bunch spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
(you can replace shallots and spring onions with more brown onions)
10cm piece root ginger, peeled and finely sliced
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1. Cut beef into 1cm cubes. In a large mixing bowl (not stainless steel) mix together the curry and garam masala powders and yoghurt. Add the beef and mix thoroughly so that all the beef pieces are coated in the marinade. Let the flavours mingle for 4-6 hours. If you are in a hot climate, place it in the fridge.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of butter in a very large pot with a thick base over high heat. Add the carrot, sultanas, apple, banana and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir. Transfer to the slow cooker.

3. Clean out the pan and heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, shallots and spring onions and cook until softened and starting to brown. Add the beef cubes, a little at a time so the pan doesn’t loose too much heat, and brown the meat, stirring constantly, for 10-15 minutes.

4. Pour the meat and onion mixture into the slow cooker and stir well. Turn the slow cooker on low and cook for 8 hours until the meat is very tender and collapsing. Serve with rice and a selection of accompaniments such as green peas, sambals, chutney, banana and coconut, and a tomato and red onion salad. I drizzled mine with extra plain yoghurt and garnished with parsley.