Cookies n cream

I had some condensed milk left over from making choc malt slice, so I found a recipe for cookies 'n' cream icecream. The girls and I made it this morning. It was the first time I have made icecream. It turned out pretty well, I have to say, given that it was done without an icecream maker so it only got churned once. The recipe said to use Bailey's but I didn't have any so I made some kiddy style and some with Kahlua.

1 cup sweetened condensed milk
600mL cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g chocolate biscuits
2 tbs Baileys (or liqueur of your choice)

Beat 1st 3 ingredients on high for about 7 minutes until very thick.
Break up chocolate biscuits, add liqueur if using. Stir in carefully to cream mixture.
Put in freezer-proof container, freeze for at least 3 hours.

Tasted pretty good. But then, most things taste pretty good if you add liqueur :-)

Chicken stir fry

When I first moved out of home my sister and I were living together on a VERY tight budget. We used to do stir fries, just veggies and the occasional bit of shredded pizza ham. No marinade or sauce, just straight up and dead boring.

I remember one day going to a friend's place for dinner, and he got out his wok, got out some food and started preparing a marinade. What a revelation. It had never occurred to me that you should do this (the only excuse I can make is that I was preoccupied with trying to get the marks I needed to transfer into Medicine).

I love the flavours you can impart in a marinade. The basic principle I work with is oil, sugar of some sort, acid (to break down the meat fibres and soften it) plus any other flavourings. The oil helps when cooking and the sugar just makes it nice and caramelised.
I'm doing one tonight with sunflower oil (I'm out of olive oil which would be my usual choice); soy sauce; garlic; lime and lemon zest and juice; and ginger cordial, which provides not only a nice ginger flavour but also some sugar.

Don't know what it will taste like but it smells good!

It's all in the presentation

Here are the choc malt squares that I mentioned in the last post, cut up and presented in cupcake wrappers. I was worried about the wobbly lines, but cut into small squares, as you can see, they look pretty good. In fact, someone at the afternoon tea today thought that they were professionally made!

They were pretty tasty. I got rave reviews - funny because they are very simple :-)

Here is the recipe, for those who asked me for it:

Choc-Malt Slice (from AWW)

Ingredients:

250g plain chocolate biscuits

1 cup maltesers

100g unsalted butter, chopped

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

400g milk chocolate, chopped coarsely

1 tbs vegetable oil

White chocolate (I used about 50-70g)

Method:

1. Grease 20x30cm rectangular pan (I used a 23cm square pan, which worked fine). Line base and sides with baking paper.

2. Process 200g of the biscuits until fine; chop remaining biscuits coarsely. 

3. Crush/chop maltesers (I put them in a plastic bag and got my girls to bash them with a glass). You don't want them powdered - leave some chunks.

4. Stir butter and condensed milk in a saucepan over low heat until smooth.

5. Combine processed and chopped biscuits with maltesers in a bowl; stir in butter mixture. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Then take it out just before you start the next step, or the chocolate will set too quickly.

6. Stir milk chocolate and in a double boiler or heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until smooth. WARNING: Do NOT let the water touch the bottom of the bowl, or the chocolate might seize and be useless. Some people like melting chocolate in the microwave. I don't because my microwave always burns the chocolate, and I like standing over a bowl of melting chocolate stirring it - it makes me happy.

7. Set aside the milk chocolate, and melt the white chocolate as above.

8. Pour the milk chocolate over slice and spread out. Put the white chocolate in a piping bag (I use a snap-lock bag with the corner snipped off), and drizzle the white chocolate back and forth over the milk chocolate.

9. Take a toothpick or skewer and drag it across the slice to create a pretty pattern (see picture in the last post). Do this before the chocolate sets!

10. Refrigerate about an hour. Cut using a knife dipped in hot water. You'll want to cut this into pretty small squares.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days (although seriously I think you'll be lucky if it lasts that long)

Note: You could do as the original recipe says, and omit the white chocolate, sticking maltesers into the chocolate before it sets. Or you could just leave it as plain milk chocolate, but it won't look so pretty. The other idea, which my friend Catherine does with her malteser slice, is to skip the milk chocolate, top with white chocolate (you probably wouldn't want 400g of it - try 200-300), then before it sets, sprinkle crushed maltesers on top.

Then you'll need to find something to do with the rest of the condensed milk, as the tins hold 395g and annoyingly you only need 125mL. If you have a sweet tooth, you could try coffee the way my husband discovered in Vietnam - get a shot of coffee and pour it over condensed milk, stir, drink, and wait for your teeth to dissolve.

Salmon dinner

I adore salmon but don't get to eat it very often since we moved last year and no longer live near the salmon farms. It's so expensive at the supermarket. Last night's salmon cost over $19. Still, it was a special occasion - my birthday - and still cheaper than eating out.

I cooked it in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil, some shallots, lime rind and sliced limes. I sautéed the shallots and rind a bit before I added the fish. I served it with boiled baby potatoes tossed with butter and chives. I would have used dill but the chives were growing in my garden and the dill wasn't.

I also made a salad with a bag of leaves, some mango, avocado, dried cranberries and roasted cashews. Rather than faff around with a dressing I just drizzled some balsamic vinegar over it.

The drink was a mocktail I made with watermelon put through the blender, not quite an equal part of soda water with lime, and a good slug of Buderim ginger cordial. I served it in wine glasses because I got rid of my martini glasses when I moved. The kids still thought it was fun. I tried making mine into a cocktail with a splash of moscato. It worked but if you try it go easy on the moscato, as the sweetness will overpower the melon. It would probably work with sparkling wine replacing some of the soda water, but the moscato was open, and while I'm breastfeeding I'm not going to open a bottle of bubbles just to spike a cocktail.

It was an easy dinner, and, well, yummy.