Beth's Homemade Sausage Rolls

Now I LOVE sausage rolls. Specially ones from our local bakery - they are sooo good! BUT - I hate homemade ones that are made from sausage meat (in Australia sausage is not the same as the american stuff, it's pretty foul and just ground up blergh really). So earlier this year I experimented and made my own recipe up!
They do have a different texture to most sausage rolls as they have real meat not sausage meat in them, so they aren't quite as moist, but they are OH so tasty! I haven't worked out how to get them as moist, but I'd say if you added more of the sauces that would probably help. Or possibly some diced tomato if you wanted.

Ingredients:
500g beef mince (ground beef)
500g pork mince (ground pork)
1 finely grated carrot
2 stalks grated celery
1 diced onion
3 eggs
italian herbs
tomato sauce (ketchup)
worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
Puff pastry sheets - about 6 or 7 - these need to be thawed
1 egg, beaten with a fork for basting



Lightly fry up the onion till it softens and let it cool slightly.
Place the mince, eggs, carrot, onion and celery in your stand mixer (or you can mix by hand but this is much easier!) with the paddle and mix till they are nicely combined. Then add a squirt of ketchup, a slosh of worestershire, a few shakes of italian herbs and some salt and pepper. Mix again till well mixed.

Once they are all mixed in, set this aside.
Get one piece of puff pastry and slice it right down the middle so you have 2 rectangles.
Baste the middle edges with some of the egg and then put some of the meat mixture down the outside edges of the pastry.
Roll up, meat side first so that the egg helps to close and seal the gap. You don't want too much meat mixture or you won't be able to close it up properly.

Place the sausage roll, closed up side down, on a tray with baking paper and slice into as many slices as you want. 2-3 pieces will give you nice big ones, and 6 will give you nice one bite sausage rolls for party food. Baste each with a little egg on the top before you slice them up. You can prick them with a fork if you like.

Continue till all your mixture is used up.

Bake in the oven on around 160c for about 30 mins or so until they are nice and golden brown. I find that the slower oven helps them cook right through without the pastry burning.

Let them cool on a cooling rack to save for later. Can be refrigerated or frozen and then reheated. Otherwise, serve hot with a dollop of tomato ketchup!

YUM!!!

I'll try to post a photo tomorrow.

Nanna's Curry

When I was little and went to visit my nanna, she'd often make a curry. Now, I grew up in a family who had lots of Asian friends, and my parents like HOT food. So - it was nothing like any curry that my mum or dad made as N, butanna's curry was a sweet one.

Today I was sitting at home trying to decide what to do with all the vegies that I bought to make a soup but decided the weather was too hot for that. So I thought - yep, Nanna's curry sounds good, as it's full of vegies and stuff.

I called my Nanna - who told me she was making it for HER dinner tonight too. My Pop said I could have his plateful (I don't think he's a big fan of it lol). So here's the recipe.

Dice up:
1kg blade steak

1 carrot
1 parsnip
3 small celery sticks
2 med onions
½ large capsicum (red or green pepper)
1 apple - eg granny smith

Fry it all up in a bit of oil.

Then add:

Curry powder to taste
2 dessertspoon coconut
1 dessertspoon brown sugar
1 tbsp sultanas/raisins

Fry for a little longer and then add:

1 small tin pineapple (crushed or chopped)
2tbsp soy sauce
1dessertspoon vinegar

1tbsp pickles eg green tomatoes

1tbsp fruit chutney

Simmer for 2 hours or so.

Can add a tiny bit of coconut milk too if needed.

Serve with rice.

I will post a photo when I've made it.

J

cupcakes

Ok so I know I haven't been posting much lately.

But let me tell you now - that KitchenAid mixer is certainly getting a workout! That's for sure. I love it so much. My new little toy.

Anyways, I've recently started a little business - it's JUST started. So if anyone living in Perth wants to buy cupcakes or cookies, I'm your girl. :) I've been making lots of difference cupcakes and mostly they are posted on facebook. I have a facebook fan page here:
Beth Bakes

In the meantime, here's a pic of some cupcakes I made this weekend. Vanilla cake with buttercream frosting and little dummies (pacifiers) on top made of lollies. :)

yumm!

I made these tonight http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/02/thick-chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/

Will update later with exact recipe and hopefully some pics! :)

Better get back to the baking. YUM!

My New Toy!

I would just like to inform my readers that I am now the proud owner of a KitchenAid KM150 Artisan stand mixer.

I am in LOVE!

It's so amazingly fabulous, and I plan to do some more baking really soon.

So far in it, I have made: mashed potatoes, lemon meringue pie - pastry and meringue (the best egg whites I have ever seen!!!), and right now I'm baking a loaf of bread.
It was so easy to mix in the mixer. Wow.

I have also purchased the slicer/grater/shredder attachment, and had some fun with that slicing up some vegies.

I am in love.

This is what I bought:

Caramel slice

I made this the other day, and it was choc-caramel mini cups. You made it and put it in cupcake trays to make little cups of chocolate caramel goodness. However, I decided to make it as a slice! And I've slightly simplified it.

Ingredients:
1 packet Arnott's butternut snap biscuits
1 tin condensed milk
2tbsp golden syrup
75g butter
30g butter
30g copha
200g melting chocolate

Alternatively if you are lazy, cut out the condensed milk, the 30g butter and golden syrup and use a can of Caramel Top N Fill instead. (Or use both and mix together mmmmm!!!)

OK. So throw the biscuits in a blender or food processor and crush them into crumbs. Melt the 75g of butter and pour it in and mix well.
Press it into a lamington tin or cake tin of a similar size. You probably don't need to grease it because of the butter, but lining with baking paper wouldn't hurt.
Then put the condensed milk, golden syrup and 30g butter into a saucepan and heat through. Do it nice and slow, and stir it well. It might go a bit lumpy, but it's ok, it still tastes good. Heat it till it simmers for a few minutes and goes a nice golden brown. If you just use the Top N Fill, heat it so it goes runny. Or, as I did tonight, use both and mix together, mmmmm!

Pour the caramel mix over the biscuit base, and then bake for 20 mins in the oven at 175C.

Take out of the oven and cool.

Heat the copha on the stove till melted, then add the chocolate and melt it all, stirring well.

Pour chocolate over the cooled slice and then refrigerate until set. Cut into nice small pieces as it's quite rich.

I will post photos later, as mine is still setting in the fridge!

This recipe needs to keep refrigerated, and will last a few days, if you can manage not to eat it all!

Chicken Parmigiana

I will admit that I've never been a real fan of the chicken parmigiana. In restaurants it's always oily and has too much cheese, plus they throw it on top of chips/fries, which go soggy! Not my idea of a good meal.

Andrew, my husband, however - loves it. So I thought I'd give it a go.
We had enough for 3 dinner serves, plus some leftovers for Andrew for work tomorrow. Probably if you want enough for 4 full dinner serves, use a bit extra chicken.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
4 slices bread
garlic
1 onion, diced
2 cans diced tomatoes
italian herbs - fresh or dried
sugar or ketchup
jar of plain tomato pasta sauce (eg dolmio)
vegies to serve with
pasta/spaghetti
cheese
2 eggs


Slice the chicken thinly into 2 or 3 slices. Even is good, but no matter if they aren't. Whiz up your bread in the blender to make breadcrumbs and add a bit of garlic at the end. You can also add some parmesan cheese, but I couldn't find mine! Throw your eggs in a bowl and beat them up so they are nicely mixed with a fork.
Dip your chicken into the egg and then into the breadcrumbs. Coat them well.

Put them aside - in the fridge is good here.


In a saucepan, fry up the onion and some garlic. Then add your cans of tomatoes. I also added half a jar of dolmio tomato pasta sauce. This isn't necessary but helped give it a nice round flavour. Let it simmer for a while, and add some mixed Italian herbs. Also add a squirt of ketchup or a teaspoon of sugar. This will help the sauce not be too bitter as it can get from lots of tomatoes.

Once your sauce is cooked and has simmered for a while, get a frying pan and coat it with a decent amount of oil. I used olive oil but vegetable oil is fine. Get it to a good heat so you can shallow fry the chicken. Not too hot so as to burn them though!
Fry the chicken pieces for a few minutes each side. If they aren't fully cooked, that's ok as they will be going in the oven. Place each cooked piece on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle some sauce and a sprinkling of cheese on each one. I used a tiny bit each of parmesan (yeah, I managed to find it), regular cheese and mozzerella. Don't use too much cheese you don't want it oily and icky.

Whack that in the oven at 180C for 15 mins or so.
Cook your spaghetti according to packet directions, which usually takes around 10 mins. Drain it and stir the sauce through.

Serve on a plate with a nice amount of pasta, with the chicken on top and some greens around the side. I used green beans and carrots tonight.

Sorry I forgot to take a photo, but it was delicious!!!!!!!

Then we had chocolate pudding for dessert with fudge sauce and that was awesome!!!

yummy pretty cake

Well I saw this cake here and I was inspired. The original cake was an almond cake with cherry filling but I didn't like the idea of that, so I made it choc/vanilla/choc with the same icing.

I used a packet mix, just a cheap home brand one. 2 x choc and 1 x vanilla. I think any plain cake that isn't too strong a flavour will work well - from scratch or from a packet mix. Vanilla and choc worked well, probably mud - choc and vanilla would work well too but may be a bit strong in flavour. That's why I like the generic brands as they aren't too strong.

Anyway, make 3 cakes of the same size and let them cool.

Trim the top of the cakes so they can stack on top of each other.

Get your cake stand and put 1 choc cake in the middle. Add some Nestle Caramel Top n Fill as the middle layer, then add the vanilla, more caramel and then the 2nd choc cake.
If you can't get Caramel Top n Fill, use a tin of condensed milk , take off the label, and put in a saucepan filled with water. Make sure the tin is covered. Boil this for 4 hours, let it cool and open it. Voila, you have caramel sauce!

Meanwhile you need to make the buttercream icing!

Whip 4 egg whites in a mixer till light and fluffy. Then mix 1 cup sugar with half a cup of water and heat on the stove and stir till it's dissolved. Once dissolved, let it boil for approx 5 mins till it thickens a little and becomes syruppy. I don't have a candy thermometer, so that's how I did it. Otherwise, till it gets to approx 240F.

Turn on the mixer again and whip the eggwhites, while slowly drizzling in the candy mixture. Do it nice and slowly and it should partially cook the egg from the heat! Once it's all mixed in, add 1 1/2 cups of butter (not margarine) at room temperature, 1tbsp at a time. Mix on medium-high till it's all mixed in then put up to high. It may curdle and look a bit like ricotta cheese, but mix it on high and it will go nice and creamy after a few minutes. You will need to be mixing for about 15 mins all up probably - so an electric stand mixer is best!

Once that's done, ice your cake neatly and wipe off any spills from your platter.

Then you decorate it!
I bought some royal/white icing from the shop and coloured it with food colouring and then cut it out with the cookie cutter. I left them overnight in cupcake trays so they could keep their shape. 2 days is better time to dry as overnight had them dry but soft. Still yummy though.

Decorate to your hearts content!!!

Freakin' awesome rainbow layer cake!!!

Well I saw this cake on a blog online and I just couldn't resist, I had to make it! :-)

So I made it my own and this is how I did it.

2 packets of butter cake mix (or vanilla or lemon, or anything that has no colour to it really).
Lots of icing (I made cream cheese icing)
Smarties, m&ms or 100s&1000s to decorate
Red, blue, yellow and green food colouring
Strawberry jam
Whipping cream

Make up your packet cake mix in a bowl, but before you do, weigh the bowl and remember the weight! When made, measure out 1/6 of your mixture into a smaller bowl and add red food colouring.
Pour into a cake tin and bake - there won't be much mixture - I used a 23cm tin and it was just enough mixture to cover the bottom of the tin. It only takes about 15 mins to bake or so.
When cooked, put on a cooling rack and repeat with orange (red and yellow), yellow, green, blue and purple (blue and red) food colouring. You will then have 6 cakes. If you have 2 tins, you can obviously cook 2 at a time - but make sure they are the same size tin!!!

When the cakes are all cooked and cooled, then you layer them. I started with red on the bottom, and spread some warmed strawberry jam on each layer, and then some whipped cream. Be careful how much you use, as it is a VERY sweet cake - less is best. Also don't get the cream too close to the edges as you don't want it to squelch out.



Layer them all up, and then cover the entire thing with icing, and decorate. I used a cream cheese icing, and had it slightly runny, so it just oozed down the sides of the cake - easy! But a thick harder icing will work just as well.

I decorated with some smarties and popped in the fridge.