Weekend cooking - cottage pie

Last week, when I blogged that we were having cottage pie for supper, I think it was Jenny who left me a comment and asked me what it was.

I thought everybody knew what cottage pie was until I mentioned it to Dion. Apparently it is a UK thing so many Americans won't know about it.

So here is my recipe, although I am putting some links at the bottom of this post for the "authentic" recipes.

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes

Cheese for the top

120g beef mince, extra lean

200g red kidney beans

garlic & ginger, salt & pepper to taste

Worcestershire sauce

150g tomato & onion mix

200g onion, carrots and mushroom

Method

Make mashed potato with the potatoes. Because I'm healthy, I don't use butter and I only use fat-free milk. Of course I love butter melting on hot mashed potato as much as the next person so I do indulge sometimes.

Cook the rest of the ingredients (except the cheese) into a stew/ casserole as you normally would.

Spoon the beef mince mixture into two mini casserole dishes like this.

Then spoon the mashed potato over the top and make pretty patterns with a fork. I learnt this from Nigella. I then put some Italian herbs on the top (just because I like that taste)

Then sprinkle the cheese on the top...

And bake in a pre-heated oven. Or you can use a microwave... but the oven works better.

It should look something like this. You can serve with a side salad. I was short on time and because I use such a lot of veggies, it is healthy without needing anything extra.

Enjoy!

Here are some links I found for other cottage pie recipes.

http://www.jstott.me.uk/recipes/cottagepie.php

http://www.cuisinedumonde.com/cottage_pie.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/comfortingcottagepie_14505.shtml

Weekend cooking - Easy lemon fridge tart

Ingredients

1 pkt tennis biscuits (any biscuit that will make a nice base)
1 tin condensed milk
1 tub cream
½ cup lemon juice
Use a square dish - mine takes about 3 X 3 biscuits

Method
Beat cream (I use low-fat), add lemon juice and condensed milk.
Keep one biscuit aside for sprinkling on the top
Arrange one layer of biscuits
Pour half the mixture
Arrange second layer of biscuits
Pour rest of mixture
Put the one biscuit in a ziplock bag and mash it fine with a rolling pin – good stress relief too ;)
Sprinkle "biscuit dust" on top

Put in fridge to set for about an hour

As easy as that – you are done.

It takes about 10 minutes to do and is a hit every single time!

Healthy low-cal apple dessert!

This is a quick and healthy dessert, 5 minutes from start to finish.

1. Cut up an apple into squares
2. Add about 2 tablespoons of water (so the apple doesn't dry out)
3. Sprinkle lots of cinnamon

(if you want to make it not-so-healthy, you can add a teaspoon of sugar)

Cover and cook on high in the microwave for about 3 - 5 minutes. This depends on how powerful your microwave is. It should look like this...but the smell is just gorgeous!

I then pour a 100g tub of yoghurt over the top and enjoy!

If you try out any of the recipes I post, please come back and tell me! Thanks :-)

Chocolate cake in a mug

I received an email with this chocolate cake in a mug recipe from a LOT of people so I decided to try it and see if it worked.

ingredients
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg

* I used 2 tablespoons oil and 4 tablespoons skimmed milk (still 6 tablespoons of liquid, but a tiny bit healthier :))

method
mix it all together and pour into a greased mug
microwave for 3 minutes in a 1000 watt microwave oven

As the cake cooks, the whole thing swells and rises out of the mug - that's normal so don't panic if it looks like it wants to explode.

Wait until the cake drops right back into the mug before you remove it from the microwave.

This is what it looks like...

emptied out onto a plate
on its side
pulled apart - that blurry bit is the steam escaping

This is just the right amount of cake for two people to each have some with their evening cup of tea or coffee :)

Enjoy! Let me know if you make it, okay?

Baking muffins

These are my oatmeal yoghurt muffins. I, of course, love anything with apple and cinnamon, so that's how I always make them.

Which are your favourite muffins?

I had to make a gazillion because it was my birthday

always use muffin cases - less washing up to do :)

little baby ones - very cute!

I pushed chocolate discs into the big ones - they were a lovely, chocolately surprise

for Dion - cheese and onion savoury muffins. Aren't the little ones in the cupcake holders cute?

Does anyone know how to rescue fudge?

I've been very good, which means I buy 3 pieces of fudge every week and make it stretch :)

Then I got the bright idea to make my own. Just call me Frugal Barbie!

I followed the recipe on the condensed milk can and the bit of fudge I dropped into the glass of water wasn't setting into a "soft ball" so I boiled it for another 45 minutes. The original recipe said 40 - 45 minutes.

It kind of set after that so I thought all was well.

Um, no.

It is now a consistency like toffee and goes even more gooey when I leave it out of the fridge.

It tastes yummy - it's just not fudge!

Any ideas on how to fix it?

Oatmeal Yoghurt Muffins

Recently I was blog-surfing and I landed up in Melbourne, Australia. Bindi Nestor posted this muffin recipe and people all over the world started baking. Isn't blogging fun?

1. mix 1 cup unsweetened plain or vanilla yogurt and 1 cup rolled oats together
and leave to soak in the fridge for half an hour.

2. after half an hour stir the following things in, making sure you fold the flour in last to avoid over beating: 1 egg, 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use extra virgin olive oil, but it
works ok with canola oil or whatever you prefer), 1/2 cup sugar, your own
favorite combinations of fruit, nuts, chocolate, spices, 1 1/4 cup self raising
flour (or plain flour plus one teaspoon baking powder).

3. the mixture makes 12 large muffins (1 tray) or 24 little muffins (2 trays - these are very cute).
Grease your tray and spoon the mixture in. Cook for about 15 minutes in a fairly
hot oven, 220 Celsius. You might need 20 minutes for the large muffins, but its
worth checking them at the 15 minute mark and giving them the extra time until
they are golden brown on top, and no longer squishy - they should spring back to
the touch.

I'm lazy so I use muffin cups - much easier to clean afterwards.




As you read, you can add whichever fruit you like to the basic mix. I love cinnamon and apple is also one of my favourite things (certainly my favourite fruit) so I decided on cinnamon and apple muffins.

I peeled a Granny Smith apple and grated the entire thing (medium-sized apple) into the mix. And then I added about a tablespoon of cinnamon (told you I love it).


Now, this first batch came out a bit hard and Bindi was kind enough to comment on the blog to brainstorm solutions.

I made them again this afternoon - here in the Southern Hemisphere it is cold = baking weather for me. And this time they are perfect!

So I think what I did wrong is I left the oats/ yoghurt mix too long the first time. This time I was very disciplined (very unlike me in the kitchen), set my timer so I wouldn't forget and mixed the rest in after exactly 30 minutes.

Also, my muffins need only 12 minutes in the oven, not 15. That could be why they were a bit harder the last time too.



By the way, Bindi - I think you should do a Mr Linky and get everyone who made your recipe to link their posts onto yours so we can see where in the world this has been made. Won't that be fun?

Pancakes

Pancakes are one of my my favourite desserts.

They're so easy to make and the only thing that prevents me from making them more often is the frying. Have I mentioned that I'm impatient? I have absolutely no interest in standing at the stove frying - Dion has to wash dishes so we can talk otherwise I'm not interested.

Ingredients

1 of everything! Literally.

For the two of us, I use 2 measures.

• 2 cups flour (if you want to be healthy, you can use wholewheat flour. Honestly, plain white flour is best)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups water/ milk (I do half of each)

Mix well

Pour into a jug for easier pouring (and less mess). I said less not no mess :)



Fry in very little oil (you only need to add more oil after every 3 - 4 pancakes).

Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar/ spread with apricot jam and dot with just a few drops of lemon juice before enjoying hot with a nice cup of tea. Yum!

Victoria's Apricot Crumble

The lovely Victoria made these "healthy biscuits" for us when we stayed with them in London. Delicious!

Since Dion also liked them (and he generally hates ANY cooked fruit), I got the recipe and made these this afternoon.

Ingredients
300g wholewheat self-raising flour
100g oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
175g castor sugar (I used normal)
200g butter
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
400 g dried apricots, softened with some warm water and then drained ( I used tinned apricots and drained the liquid)
zest of 1 orange

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
Rub butter into all the dry ingredients until it looks like crumbs



Divide the mixture in half and set aside one half.
To the other half, add the egg and milk, combine and press firmly into a greased baking tray

Finely chop (or roughly, if you're lazy like I am) the moistened apricots and add the zest.

Spread the apricot mix over the base and then top with the other half of the crumble mix (I reserved about 2 T of the apricot juice and added it to the crumble mix)

I put a bag over my hand to keep my hands clean. See? It doesn't only work for meat :)
Pat down firmly.

Bake for 35 mins or until golden browm. I have a hot oven so I baked mine for 30 minutes; the last 10 minutes covered with tin foil)

Enjoy!