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Food TV have sent us through the new promo for our site!  It will be playing on their channel shortly so keep an eye out.

It's pretty exciting to see our little piece of the internet being promoted on the telly.  This all just started as somewhere for us two besties to have a play around on and share our recipes with friends.  We never would have guessed it would grow this big and gather so many readers.  We just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us get to where we are today; you've all become our friends and we greatly value your support!

Plum Jam

For the past year, Simon and I have been unsure about a couple of the trees that are in our garden; we couldn’t figure out what variety of fruit tree they were.  Turns out they were a couple of different types of plums.  So, the other day I picked all the ripe fruit and I made jam.
It turns out making Plum Jam is really easy – you don’t need anything fancy because as my research has told me, Plums have a lot of natural Pectin in them.  That’s the stuff that helps the jam to set, which means you don’t need to add anything.


Our lovely trees gave me 2.7 kg of fruit before I cut them up to remove the stones.
You will need:
Equal weight of plums and sugar (at least 1.5kg – just reduce the amount of water if you have less)
A little bit of water (about ⅔ cup)


Chop up the plums, removing the stones and put into a large pot with a heavy base.  Add a little bit of water (I put in about ½ a cup for all my plums).


Bring the pot up to a boil and simmer uncovered for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The liquid should be reduced by ⅔ and the fruit should be soft.
Put a small plate into the freezer to make it cold for testing the jam later.
Add the sugar into the simmering fruit.  I would start with a small amount of sugar and taste the jam before adding more (I used about 1kg of sugar to my 2.7ish kgs of fruit because I found it sweet enough).  Stir until it is completely dissolved.Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a rapid boil while stirring.  Boil for 10 minutes.


Remove the plate from the freezer and place a blob of the mixture on to it.  Once the mixture has cooled a little, run your finger through it; if the mixture stays separated it is ready to be put into jars.  If the mixture comes back together, boil it for a few more minutes before testing again.  Once the mixture is ready, remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jam jars (I used some from the supermarket that have the lids that pop in when they have sealed.  There’s heaps of info about how to sterilise them on the internet.)

 

I found this You Tube video really helpful and recommend it if you are going to give making Plum Jam a go.
Once opened the jars of jam will last for about 8 weeks.

Pizza and Mozzarella making!

On Thursday 15th September, Simon, David (Simon’s brother) and I headed out to Muriwai for one of The Gourmet Gannet’s Pizza and Mozzarella making culinary workshops.  Simon and I had been out before for an English Pork Pie making class and were pretty excited to be going back.  We had heaps of fun and it was surprisingly easy.


Allison taught us to make pizza dough from scratch, without measuring the ingredients and to mix everything by hand.  This was great because it means we can now make pizza dough with whatever quantity of flour we like (as I did tonight to use up our leftover mozzarella) and we know what consistency we want to get it to.  I’ve made a little video which you can watch at the bottom of this post which outlines the process :)


While the pizza dough was proving (growing in size) we made our mozzarella.  This looked pretty gross while we were splitting the curds and whey of the milk, but was fun once we had it to the stage where you stretch it out and make your balls of cheese.  Once we had finished making the cheese it was time to get our dough into shape for the base, topped with sauce and our cheese and put into the oven to bake.  When the pizzas were ready we gave them a quick sprinkle with basil, salt, pepper and some olive oil then cut them up and enjoyed the fruits of our labour along with the delicious red wine that Alison opened for Simon’s birthday.


We had left over cheese to take home and because I was a bit over the top with my flour estimate, I had enough dough to take home and make some more pizzas the next day :)

If you are interested in making your own cheese you can get a kit from a company called ‘Mad Millie’ which has everything you need to make mozzarella, ricotta and mascarpone.  I’ve got myself a kit and think I might give making ricotta a try next.

And, if you want to go to a cooking class head along to The Gourmet Gannet website to book one.  While you’re at it check out Alison’s awesome blog ‘Pease Pudding’ too.

Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart

This tart is super rich – you only need the tiniest slither to indulge yourself.  I made this on the same day that I attempted my whoopie pies, which worked out great as this recipe uses up the egg yolks that were left over from the pies.





Pastry:
1 ⅓ cups plain flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
100g unsalted butter, chopped
3 egg yolks
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Salted Caramel:
1 cup caster sugar
125g salted butter, chopped
⅓ cup pure cream
¼ teaspoon salt flakes

Chocolate Topping:
140g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
1 teaspoon canola oil

Place flour, sugar and cocoa in a food processor.  Add butter and process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Add egg yolks and vanilla and process until a dough forms.  Shape into a disc, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Roll out pastry on a lightly floured bench (or between two sheets of baking paper), then ease into a 20cm loose-based tart tin.  Trim the edges and chill for at least 15 minutes.  Bake the tart base for 12 minutes, or until pastry looks dry and cooked.  Check out here for some more tips on making short crust pastry.

To make the salted caramel, dissolve the sugar in ⅓ cup of water in a saucepan on a low heat.  Increase the heat to high, bring to the boil and cook for 10 – 12 minutes, until the mixture turns light toffee in colour.  Add butter and stir until the mixture comes together and comes away from the sides of the pan.  Turn off the heat and stir in half the cream.  When the bubbles subside, stir in the remaining cream and salt flakes.  Pour into the pastry case bake bake for 12 minutes, until set.  Cool completely.

To make the chocolate topping, melt the chocolate and oil in a double boiler and stir until smooth.  Spread the chocolate over the caramel tart and refrigerate until set.

I put together a little video of the tart being made.  It is my first attempt at making a video ever, so thank you Simon for pointing out the basics to me :)

Using Photoshop to Bake

I thought this was really clever…

Cupcakes Dominate!

It seems that cupcakes are everywhere at the moment, but I never thought I would see a cupcake shaped motor vehicle.  However, it’s happened and I just have to share it with you!