Slow cooked lamb shanks

Miss K - a bonafide lamb lover

As the winter weather continues to harras us (I have to say I far prefer the novelty of snow than the icy rain), it's a great opportunity to get out the slow cookers and fill up on hearty hot meals. You can have this meal in the slow cooker in less than 15 minutes.

Master A enjoys his lamb SHank

Lamb shanks, are a real favourite in our house - even though they cost a bit more than they used to, they are easy to prepare and quickly devoured! Tonight they were served with oven roasted potatoes (request of the kids), but its lovely on mashed potatoes or creamy polenta (to soak up the sauces) and served with whatever other veges you have on hand.

Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks
2 T olive oil or cooking oil
3 - 4 lamb shanks
1 onion
2 x cans of diced tomatoes (flavoured is fine)
2 t of beef stock or one beef cube
2 bay leaves
water or wine or beer

1. Turn slow cooker on high and spray with oil (a hint I learnt from the Holsts)
2. Heat oil in frying pan and lightly brown the lamb shanks on all sides
3. Thinly slice the onion and place on the bottom of the slow cooker
4. Place lamb shanks on top of onions and cover with the two cans of tomatoes.
5. Fill the cans up with water, mix the stock in (alternatively you could add one cup of red wine, or beer and one cup of water - or a cup of wine/beer and a cup of stock (beef/vegetable) and pour over into the slow cooker. Add the bay leaves.
6. Turn the slow cooker to low and leave for 7 - 8 hours until the shanks are tender and falling from the bone.
7. Serve with mashed potatoes, peas, roasted carrots and other veges, and/or crusty bread to mop up the sauce. 

You can vary this recipe by adding other herbs and vegetables (like carrots).

Vege soup and rye bread

All this snow really inspires soup. My wee ones love a good (pureed) vege soup, made extra special by the Raumati Butcher's bacon pieces! What's lovely about this is you can get your 5 + A Day in one go.

Yes some one sneaked a bite and a taste before photo could be taken!

This arvo I also whipped up some rye bread. This is wheat free, but not gluten free. It makes two loaves, so you can eat one and slice and freeze the other - for another cold snap.

 Vege soup - serves 4 - 6

1 Leek hopped finely
about 50 to 100 grms of bacon bits (big chunky ones from the butcher you can slice up are the best)
1 T of olive oil or olivani
1/2 pumpkin
2 potatoes
2 carrots
2 kumara
2 small turnips or one average size swede.
2 t of vege stock powder
3 -4 cups of water (just enough to cover the veges)

1. Finely slice your leek and chop up the bacon bits
2. Chop up all other veges into approx 2cm x 2cm chunks, except the carrot - this needs to be sliced quite finely as it takes the longest to cook.
3. Heat the oil in a large pot, add the leeks and bacon and lightly fry until leeks are just tender, stirring often.
4. Throw in all other veges and give them a good stir.
5. Add the water and the vege stock. Bring to the boil over high heat, then turn it down to a low heat and leave to simmer for about 20 - 25 mins until the veges are tender.
6. Leave to cool then blend. I use a blender on a stick to whizz all the veges up. You can also do this in a blender or food processor (in batches), but make sure the soup is cooled fully, or the lid will fly off and it can be quite dangerous.
8. Return pureed soup to the pot and re-heat gently.
9. Serve with bread.

Rye Bread from The Gluten, Wheat & Dairy Free Cookbook by Antoinette Savill.
455g or 31/4 C of Rye Flour
310 g or 2/1/4 cups of white rice flour (I used a tapioca and rice flour mix)
1 t of salt
14 g of instant yeast - I used 6 teaspoons of dried yeast
300ml of unsweetened apple juice (I used tropical as we had no apple) mixed in equal parts with warm water - (I took this to mean 300mls of juice and 300mls of water, but after making a very wet dough, I assume that this was actually 300mls of juice and warm water in total).
2 t of treacle or molasses
1 t of cumin seeds (optional)

1. Prepare two non-stick loaf tins (I sprayed mine with cooking oil)
2.Sift flours and salt into a bowl. Mix in yeast, make a well in the centre and stir in apple juice/water mix
3.Dip Tablespoon into boiling water to heat it, then use the spoon to measure the molasses (this helps stop it sticking), add to the mixture and mix until you have a firm dough. A word of advice - avoid licking the spoon after, no matter how tempting it looks. Molasses is very strong!
4.knead thoroughly on a floured board for about 10 minutes. Divide the mixture between two baking tins, cover with glad wrap and leave in a warm place until the mixture has doubled in size (about 40 mins).
5. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 200 C or 400 F.
6. Place the tins on a baking sheet, sprinkle the tops with a little water and the cumin seeds, then bake in the oven for 45 mins. The top goes a very dark colour.
7. Remove from the oven to cool slightly, before leaving on a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve cold in slices or freeze until needed.

I will be trying this one again with the right amount of liquid!

Disappearing Chocolate Brownies (DCB)

Divine, divine, divine - and on a cold night like tonight, just the thing to warm you up. Plus they are gluten and dairy free - almost guilt free (if you overlook the sugar)! Yummy served up warm with yogurt or cold - but it won't last long and they can be whipped up in a few minutes. The longest part is waiting for it to cook.

This is a modification of Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne's How to Cook for Foor Allergies. Hers is called Squidgy Chocolate Brownies - I called mine 'Disappearing' because that's exactly what happened.

 

wee slice taken out to show lovely rich layers. Mr T allowed to taste test

After taste test, Mr T had to have some more. It was a battle to keep this much for the kids!

Disappearing Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients:
110g/4 oz olivani or other butter substitute (or butter if you are not dairy free)
85g/3 oz of 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate
55g/2 oz of potato flour - I was all out so used 45g of tapioca flour, 10 g of corn flour and a tablespoon of corn starch. If you are not avoiding gluten or wheat, you can use ordinary flour, but use one less egg.
225g/8 oz of granulated sugar - I use raw sugar
1/2 t of salt
1 tsp baking powder (g/f if necessary)
3 eggs

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees celcius (350 F) and line a square 20cm (8 inch) baking tin with baking paper. Have the paper go about 2.5 cm /1 inch about the tin

1. Melt chocolate and olivani in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring regularly until melted.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a LARGE bowl. I usually whisk the dry ingredients.
3. Beat eggs into chocolate/olivani mix with a wooden spoon. Quickly stir into dry ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour into the tin and bake for about 25 - 30 mins. It's ready when the centre just gives when you press it.
5. Take out of the oven and keep everyone away from it for 10mins until it's cool - then you can cut it into generous slices and eat...

Wee tip - for a quick clean up, I use a big mixing bowl. I rinse it out, fill it up with water and detergent and clean the sauce pan, measuring cups, spoons etc in it. Saves water and time.

Miko's Miso Soup

8am - small smattering of snow

Snow, snow and more snow - here in lovely Kapiti. Who would have thought. I only captured a wee smattering that came down overnight - nothing like the gorgeous drifts we got this afternoon!

SO in this cool weather, I thought some soul warming food was in order (assuming people's power is still on!). One of my favourites that always makes me feel good is Miso.

Japanese Radish or Daikon, also seems to have a quality of keeping the body warm. This is my Miko's Miso Soup with Daikon

 Miko's Miso Soup
Pour about 3 cups of water into a pot. Add 1 teaspoon of dashi stock (available at most asian food markets, fish stock is also fine), place over high heat with lid on.
After about 1 minute, add one finely sliced onion and one small finely sliced Daikon (these can vary in size - if you have a big one, you might only want to add a quarter).
Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 10 mins until Daikon is tender.
Turn off heat and stir through 2 heaped tablespoons of miso (you can adjust the quantities depending on how dark or light your miso is (for darker use less) and how strong you like the flavour).

Daikon

Daikon can be replaced with potato and/or firm tofu. You can also add wakame (seaweed) for extra texture and flavour.

Klever Kale

Every week we have delivered a lovely vege box from The Organic Connection and there are always exciting and new veges for me to read up on and experiment with.

Recently we've been getting a lot of Kale, which I generally treat like silver beet or spinach and toss into soups, stir fries etc. But, I've discovered they have a really unique taste of their own that can be enhanced in some fab dishes.

Yesterday I discovered a Kale Chips recipe on fellow blogger Sweet Georgia and the Crafty Squirrel, she's a clever lady. See the picture  this is only half that came out of the oven - Miss K (5 in about 2 weeks) and Mr T loved them. Master A (2) was not so keen, but these did not last at all!

I recently made an Apple and Kale Salad - Miss K not so keen on kale this way, so not strictly dairy free

You will need:

Bunch of Kale

2 T of olivani (or butter if your not dairy free)

one apple diced (skin on is fine)

goats feta (optional depending if lactose intolerant of fully dairy free

pine nuts

olive oil

lemon juice (half a lemon)

1.Chop Kale into slices about 5cm in width, then heat the olivani in a large saucepan.

2. When just melted, add kale cook for about 2 mins. I added the lemon juice at this point, but it can brown the leaves. You can add it at the end.

3. Add the apple and continue to cook on medium heat for about 6 - 8 minutes, stirring often

4. When kale is just wilting, take off the heat and cool slightly. Apple should be just firm

5. Pop into a salad bowl. Crumble feta and add pine nuts.

6. Drizzle with olive oil, then a squeeze of lemon and it's ready to serve.

Healthy Hamburgers

This is a super fast dinner that the kids can help put together at the table. I grate the carrots, slice the cheese (dairy free for Miss K), chop up the gherkins and wash the lettuce and pop it on the table with dozens of condiments. (Turns out Miss K loves honey-grain mustard). Fried onions, tomato, beetroot can also be added. As soon as the patties are done and cooled slightly, the kids assemble their burgers at the table and chow down! There is something about putting your own meal together that the kids love.

The photo here is Daddy's version. For Miss K we used gluten free/wheat free store bought baps. The rest of us had gluten free burgers and fresh buns.

Hamburger Buns
500 grms of lean mince beef (more or less as you need)
1 egg
1 T of tomato sauce (I use whitlocks)
1 T of wheat free soya sauce or Tamari of Lea and Perrins
1/2 C buck wheat flakes. You can also use rice flakes whizzed in the processor for a few seconds so they are crumbly. If you are going the normal version - about 1/2 C of bread crumbs will do.

1.Throw all ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly (with your hands is the best)
2. Wet hands (keep a little bowl beside you so you can dip into) and shape into flat patties - any size is fine, remember the bigger (and fatter they are) the longer they take to cook. Mine were about 7 -8 cm in diameter.
3. Place patties (as you go) onto an oven tray (a roasting pan is fine). I usually use baking paper to save on scrubbing and to stop sticking. Another alternative is to give it a good spray with cooking oil.
4. Pop in the over at 180 degress for 20 - 25 mins (longer if patties are bigger) - the best way to see if they are done is to cut one open. No red in the middle means they are ready!
5. Serve assembled with favourite fillings.

Avocado chocolate cream pots

Who doesn't love something chocolately at the end of a meal - more so when it is kinda 'good for you'?

I almost didn't get a photo before they were devoured!



I found this recipe in an allergy-free desert cook book. The original called for 3/4C of cocoa and it was too bitter for any of us to eat (even me). So I modified - this is something I love to do and really want to encourage others to try - it's ok to veer away from the recipe (sometimes!). You can add more or less of the sweeteners (honey, maple syrup or icing sugar) as you go, but do bear in mind that as it sets the sweetness develops.

Here's my version:
2 -3 ripe avocados
2 T cocoa
2 T of honey
2 T maple syrup or agave
2 T of icing sugar

Into a food processor (I just use one of those mini ones you plug into a stick. A blender if also fine, but it can be cumbersome trying to get the last bits out!) put your avocado and all other ingredients.
Whizz for about 30 seconds, open the lid and scrape down all the sides - do a taste test. Add extra sweetener if necessary.

Whizz again for about 30 seconds to a minute until the mixture is dark and creamy.

Pour into individual pottles and pop in the fridge until cold.

Serve with yoghurt (we use soy for Miss K) and berries (here I've used defrosted blue berries).

You can keep these for up to 2 days, covered tightly in glad wrap in the fridge.