Kerrin | Crazy About Cooking

Lavender and Lemon Swirl Cookies

Kerrin Beginners Baking, Sweet Treats 18/07/201918/07/2019 0 Comment

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It seems like lavender is everywhere in recipes at the moment and I have to confess, I’ve been very keen to try a few concoctions of my own with it. When the lovely Karina kindly offered me some that she had, I jumped at the chance and created these delightful cookies.

Ingredients

125gm butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup plain flour (this is extra flour that you may or may not need depending on how wet your dough mix is)
2 tsps lavender
2 tsps lemon juice
10 drops purple food colouring (you can make these without the food colouring but they wind up just looking gritty rather than a lovely purple)

Method

Whip the butter with either a hand mixer or food processor. Add the sugar and continue mixing until they are thoroughly creamed. I like to do this separately, rather than just putting the butter and the sugar in to begin with – I think it creates a lighter final cookie.

Add the egg and beat until well combined.

Divide the mix in two and set one half aside.

Working with one of the batches, add the lemon juice, and one cup of the plain flour and mix together to form a soft dough. You may need to add more flour at this point to make it come together, depending on how old your flour is and the weather conditions when you’re making these. Pat the dough a ball, wrap in cling wrap and set aside.

Wipe your food processor out with some paper towel to get rid of most of the moisture.

Put the lavender in the food processor and whizz until it’s coarsely ground up (or use a bullet blender or mortar and pestle).

Next add the remaining butter/sugar/egg mix, the food colouring and 1 cup of flour to form a soft dough. Again, you may need to add extra flour to get the right consistency here. The dough should be pliable and not sticky. Don’t worry if it seems aggressively purple at this point – it will lighten up as it cooks.

Wrap in cling wrap and set aside for about 15 minutes. Unless it’s the height of summer, I don’t like to refrigerate the dough at this point as it becomes too hard to work with.

The pinwheels are made by rolling both batches of dough out into rectangles, laying one on the other and then rolling them up together to make a log.

Once you have your log, wrap it in your baking paper and then cling wrap and pop it in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 weeks. You can literally make a roll of cookie dough once every couple of weeks and slice some rounds off when you want fresh cookies. It’s fantastic!

When you’re ready to bake, cut the log into slices, bearing in mind that the cookies will stay roughly the thickness that you cut them at. Because these use plain flour they don’t tend to rise much at all.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper.

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.

Eggs and Dairy

Never boil eggs again

Want super smooth, perfectly cooked boiled eggs? Stop boiling them. Bring the water to the boil, then turn off the heat and cover the pan. Leave them for 6-12 minutes depending on how soft or hard you like them – there are several good apps that will help you time this, based on how large your eggs are and how well you like them cooked.

Upscale your cheese sauce

Use packet mix (gasp!) mix with half water/half milk and then add a good dollop of ricotta cheese. Pour over broccoli and cauliflower and bake for about 20 minutes. You can thank us later.

Grate your butter

Use a cheese grater to grate butter for making pie dough if you don’t have a food processor and have to rub the butter in by hand.

Random Tips

Kerrin Cooking Tips, Pro Tips 07/06/2019 0 Comment

Keep staples on hand

Who needs 5 different types of flour, 4 different sugars and 3 different types of rice in the house? E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E.

Experiment!

Always ask yourself, ‘What if …’
‘What if I added pomegranate molasses to spaghetti sauce?’
‘What if I use sweet potato instead of pasta in lasagne?’
‘What if I sprinkle dried chilli flakes on my choc chip cookies before baking them?’
The worst that happens is a funny story, the best is a new divine taste.

Play ‘Surprise Chef’ every couple of weeks

We’ve all got dregs of different ingredients that we bought for a particular recipe haunting the back of the pantry. Every couple of weeks, make a deal with yourself to cook something with ONLY the ingredients you have on hand – you’ll need to get creative and improvise, but it means you can reduce food waste and that’s always a good thing!

Get salty

Don’t. Be. Afraid. Of. Salt.

Sharpen up

A sharp knife is a safer knife as there’s less chance it’ll slip off the food and cut you. And everything is easier with a sharp knife. Get a good knife sharpener and learn how to use it properly.

Butter ’em up

Want your sauces to really shine? Add a little butter (just a teaspoon or so) at the end of the cooking process and watch that restaurant-like gloss shine through.

Fruits and Veggies

Kerrin Cooking Tips, Pro Tips 07/06/2019 0 Comment

Sugar and salt

In tomato based dishes, always add a dash of sugar with the salt. Tomato bleeds the flavour out of food so you need to boost it back up.

Peel gingerly

Peel ginger with a spoon to get the thinnest peel possible and reduce waste.

Hulling strawberries doesn’t have to suck

Well, it kind of does … especially if you use a straw. Put the end of the straw over the end of the strawberry and push and twust gently to force it through the strawberry and push the stalk out. Grab one of those wide straws from the bubble tea places or pick up a pack of them from your local variety store. You can reuse the straws several times, just make sure you wash them thoroughly. Plus, you can reduce wastage here by freezing the hulls to add to ice cream, make coulis or add to baking.

Make mega-fast wedges

Use an apple slicer to cut spuds into fast wedges. Depending on the size of your potato, you may need to halve the wedges again after you’ve cut them, but it does make producing a load of wedges faster. And you get the round middle bits, which make the most amazing fluffy fries.

Cook corn in the husk

Trust us on this one – it’s amazing. Cut the silks off the top of the ear of corn and loosen the top of the husks gently, but don’t peel them back. Soak the corn in water for a few minutes and then put directly in a moderate oven or on the BBQ for about 20 minutes. The outside husks will char and blacken and the corn inside will be steamed to a sweet, juicy perfection. You won’t even need butter, it’s that good.

Take it up a notch by sprinkling some liquid smoke into the husks before you cook them. Life. Changing.

Get your timing right

As a general rule, the harder a vegetable is the sooner you add it into the cooking process.

Reduce waste by freezing your veg

Freeze veggies that are on the edge of turning soft and soggy (like carrots, onions, zucchini) in a big bag labelled ‘stock veg’. Once the bag is full, use it to make a pot full of beautiful veggie stock, which you can then freeze in containers to use later. Or make stock ice cubes with one of these huge ice cube trays.

Up your herb game

Dry herbs and spices are added at the beginning of cooking as they need time to release their flavours. Fresh herbs are added at the end so that you don’t overcook them and lose their flavour. Unless you’re talking fresh ginger and lemongrass, which will sometimes need to be added at the start.

Storage

Kerrin Cooking Tips, Pro Tips 07/06/201907/06/2019 0 Comment

Airtight containers FTW

Get rid of all your open packets. Invest in some containers – you can get fancy ones that stack, glass jars from all of the coffee your family drink (thanks Dad) or even cheap 10 for $2 Chinese food containers from the supermarket. Whatever it is, get your ingredients into airtight storage once you open the packets.

Keep veg fresh for longer

If you’ve stocked up on some lovely veg, you want to make sure you can use it all. Store veggies in the crisper section of your fridge stacked between layers of absorbent paper towel. Ive had market fresh zucchinis in the fridge like this for 5 weeks now and counting and they’re still perfectly fine.

Freeze veggies for soups, stocks and stews

Meats and Proteins

Kerrin Cooking Tips, Pro Tips 07/06/201907/06/2019 0 Comment

Tenderise, Tenderise, Tenderise

We’re not going to say this is life changing, but once you’ve tried this you’ll never go back to not pre-tenderising your meat and protein again. It’s a very simple two-step process and you only need two ingredients, one of which is water. It works on all kinds of meats and seafood, although if you have very delicate ingredients like a flaky fish, it’s probably not a good idea to tenderise them as they may become too tender and just turn to mush.

Step 1: mix together 1 1/2 cups of cold water with 1 tsp of bicarbonate soda and pour over your meat. Make sure that whatever you’re soaking is completely covered and leave it for at least 15 minutes.

Step 2: rinse thoroughly to remove all traces of the bicarb from the meat.

Next, you can simply pat the meat dry with a paper towel (if you’re grilling) or throw it straight into whatever you’re cooking (for things like fast soups and stir fries).

You can also marinate the meat from this point – we tried this with Buffalo Wings and it was an absolute game changer.

Cook meat from room temperature

We’ve all heard this one – but who actually ever does it? Well, we all should, especially if you’re someone who likes their steak cooked medium rare, rare or blue, as it allows you to get that beautiful sear on the outside and pink-red perfection on the inside without the centre of your steak being stone cold. Obviously, it does depends on the temperature of the room somewhat as well – we don’t recommend doing this in the height of summer when you break a sweat just blinking. But definitely don’t be cooking your meat straight from the fridge.

What’s a blue steak? If you’re not familiar with this term, it’s because not many people like their steak this way. It’s basically seared on the outside and pretty much raw on the inside. So it’s essential that it’s not pretty much raw AND colder than a White Walker’s heart when you go to eat it.

Make sure the thickness of your meat is as consistent as possible

Basic common sense but your meat will cook more evenly if it’s a consistent thickness throughout. Try to either slice your meat consistently OR roll it out with a rolling pin if you have a good heavy one.

Stop playing with it

Leave your meat alone. Put it on to sear and then walk away. For at least 3 minutes. And only ever flip a steak once.

Season after searing

Never season your meat with salt and pepper before you cook it. The salt will leach the juice out of the steak and the pepper will burn

Apple Crumble Pie

Kerrin Beginners Baking, Sweet Treats 04/06/2019 0 Comment

About an hour and a half drive from our house is a small town in Australia’s Blue Mountains called Bilpin – home to many wonderful orchards and birthplace of some truly excellent apple cider. Last weekend we decided to take a drive to make the most of the late Autumn sunshine and pick some Pink Lady Apples.

It was a glorious day and the apples were all kinds of perfect.

The biggest question was whether to make apple pie or apple crumble – I couldn’t decide so I decided por que no los dos and combined the two!

Ingredients

Filling

4-5 cups peeled, cored and thinly sliced apple – how much you need will depend on how deep your pie dish is
about 2 tsp lemon juice
3 cups water
1 cup tightly packed brown sugar
2-3 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup cornflour

Crust

2 x 340gm packets vanilla or butter cake mix
1 cup shredded coconut (use desiccated if you don’t have a food processor)
240gm butter, chopped

Crumble

leftover base mix
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup processed bran
2 tbsp shredded coconut
chopped nuts if desired

Method

Filling

Sprinkle the lemon juice over the apple slices to stop them from going brown and set aside.

Combine 2.5 cups of the water, sugar and spices in a saucepan and mix well. Slowly bring to the boil, stirring gently with a balloon whisk. Combine remaining water and cornflour and add to pot, and continue to stir so that it mixes in smoothly. Simmer until the mixture starts to caramelise and thicken.

Add apples to saucepan and simmer gently until the apples are tender. Don’t overcook them here as they will cook more in the oven when the pie is baking. Stir every now and then to make sure that it doesn’t stick and that all of the apples are stewing evenly.

Once the apples are done, remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

Crust

Note: My pie tin is a deep one – if you only have a shallow pie tin, halve the crust ingredients.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse on high speed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Spray your pie tin lightly with oil and press the crust mix into it evenly, making sure you pack it down well. The crust should be nice and densely packed, and extend all the way up the sides of the tin. You should have a good amount of the mix leftover to use as the base for the crumble.

Blind bake the crust for about 15-20 minutes in a moderate oven (180 degrees) or until it is golden brown, turning as needed. The crust will puff up, just press if back down with the back of a spoon or a spatula a few times during the baking time.

Once it’s golden, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Crumble

Combine leftover crust mixture, oats, coconut, bran and nuts (if using) and squeeze into a soft dough. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes while you assemble the pie.

Using a colander or slotted spoon, drain most of the syrup from the apples and reserve in a bowl for later.

Load the pie crust up with apples, break the crumble dough over the top and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes in a moderate oven or until the top is golden brown. Turn the pie as needed so it browns evenly.

Remove from oven, cool in the tin for about 15 minutes so the crust can ‘set’.

De-pan it, then slice and serve with ice cream and extra syrup drizzled over the top.

Ginger Chilli Chicken Dumplings

Kerrin Asian Inspired, Not Vegetarian, Savoury Temptations, Snack Food, Uncategorized 31/05/201931/05/2019 0 Comment

Anyone who knows me will testify that I have literally never said no to dumplings. I absolutely love these bite-sized parcels of flavour-laden filling wrapped in light pastry. Although I live in an area with incredible Asian grocers that stock amazing dumplings, I do like to make my own as well. If you’re going to try this recipe I highly recommend getting yourself a dumpling press. It makes forming the dumplings 100 times easier and you can use it for making all kinds of sweet and savoury pastries as well.

Makes 72 wrapped dumplings and a few ‘naked’ ones

Ingredients

500gm chicken mince
1 handful of soggy old mushrooms (there’s sure to be a few hiding in the back of your fridge!)
1 medium zucchini
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
a few green onions (if you have them)
1 heaped tsp Korean seasoned soybean paste *
a cautious amount of chilli shrimp
soy sauce to taste
1-2 tbsp dehydrated mashed potato mix
2 x 36 packs of round wonton wrappers

Method

I love a recipe that calls for everything getting thrown in the food processor and this definitely fits that description.

Using the chopping blade, pulse all of the ingredients apart from the wonton wrappers in the food processor until well combined.

At this point, use your nose – the mix should smell gingery, and spicy and salty. Adjust any of your flavours until you’re happy with the smell.

Set a small pot of water to boil. Once it’s simmering, drop a teaspoon of the chicken mixture into the water and wait for it to float to the surface. Give it another 20-30 seconds or so then fish it out and have a taste. If you’re happy with how the flavours come together then you’re ready to make the dumplings. If not, then just add dashes of your different flavourings and keep testing a small amount until if has the flavour you want.

Grab your dumpling press and a small cup of water. Place one wonton wrapper in the press and drop about a teaspoon of mixture onto it. Wet your finger and run it around the edges of the wonton wrapper, then fold the press in half and squeeze to seal the edges. Place the dumpling on some baking paper for the seal to ‘set’.

This next step is optional. Take one dumpling at a time and rest it between your thumb and forefinger with the curved edge fitting into the curve of your hand. Push gently in the middle of the bit where the filling is and then push the two ends together so you’re effectively folding the dumpling in half.

If you have exactly enough mix for all of the wrappers then you should definitely go buy a lottery ticket 🙂

Usually I have some leftover, so I make some ‘naked’ dumplings – literally just teaspoon sized balls of chicken mix that I poach in either stock or Asian soup base. These can be stored in the fridge (in the liquid) for a few days easily.

These dumplings also freeze well, just make sure you freeze them on trays before portioning them out so that they don’t get all stuck together.

When you’re ready to cook them, drop them in boiling water, stock or soup base. When they float, leave them in the broth for another 20-30 seconds or until they’re cooked through.

Alternatively, they can also be air fried or deep fried (like I wasn’t going to air fry them!)

*Korean Seasoned Soy Bean Paste: where do I start? It’s an umami overload of flavour that adds SO much depth to a dish. I’m not going to say it’s life changing, but if you can get your hands on some it’s definitely going to rock your world. You should be able to find it in a dedicated Korean Grocer, otherwise your specialty Asian shop might stock it as well and it’s totally worth the effort to find it.

Best Ever Peach Kuchen

Kerrin Beginners Baking, Sweet Treats, Vegetarian 30/05/201930/05/2019 0 Comment

Fast and easy to make, this not-too-sweet tart is sure to become a family favourite. You can substitute almost any soft fruit for the peaches if you prefer – stone fruits and berries work particularly well.

And yes, it is made using a packet cake mix! I usually get the cheapest 79-cent home brand one.

Ingredients

Base

1 x 340g packet vanilla or butter cake mix
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
120gm butter

Filling

250ml carton sour cream
1 large egg
3 tbsp caster sugar
Tinned peaches (or other soft fruit)
Cinnamon to dust

Method

Combine the cake mix, coconut and butter in a food processor and mix until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, you can rub the butter in by hand if you prefer.

Press into a lined slice tin or a flan tin with a removable base if you have one. Cover the base and the sides of the tin.

Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. The mix will puff up a bit – don’t worry about that, just press it back down with the back of a spoon or a spatula. You can also blind bake it if you have baking paper and beans or rice, I’ve tried both ways and it doesn’t seem to make too much difference.

After the base has turned pale gold, remove from the oven and let cool slightly. It’s important that the base has started to turn golden otherwise the filling will seep though too much.

Open your carton of sour cream and crack the egg right into it. You can use a bowl if you’re a big fan of washing up, but you can mix it just fine in the carton if you’re lazy like me.

Whisk the egg and the sour cream together and add in the caster sugar. Let sit for a couple of minutes while you arrange the peaches on the base.

Depending on how deep your tin is you may want to cut the peach slices in half again to make them thinner. Arrange them as prettily as you want or just lob them in over the cooled base.

Pour the wet mix over the top of the peaches, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and pop the kuchen back in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the filling is set and slightly golden on top.

If you’re using a tin with a removable base, you may want to sit it on a baking sheet to stop any liquid dripping onto the bottom of your oven (I speak from experience here – is there anything more disappointing than having to spend an hour cleaning the bottom of the oven after you’ve finished baking??).

Let cool in the tin, then slice as desired. Can be served with ice cream or cream or all by itself.

Kuchen stores well in the fridge and is great for lunchboxes. You can also freeze individual serves pretty successfully and it’s actually kind of nice frozen as well – like a custardy ice cream slice.

Sometimes I wind up with some extra base and filling, so I make mini individual kuchens in foil pie tins. Follow exactly the same process but keep a closer eye on them because they tend to cook faster.

Zuggets (AKA Zucchini Nuggets)

Kerrin Air Fryer, Brunch Favourites, Savoury Temptations, Vegetarian 03/05/201903/05/2019 0 Comment

Crazy-About-Cooking-Zuggets-Featured-Image

You know how sometimes there are recipes that you just can believe taste as good as they do? This is one of them. Even if you’re not a zucchini fan, you’re pretty much guaranteed to like these zuggets. Is ‘zuggets’ a word? It is now. But maybe not if you’re trying to get a triple word score in Scrabble 🙂

Ingredients

2.5 cups grated zucchini
1 medium onion, finely minced
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup dehydrated mashed potato mix ( I like the Aldi one)
1/2 cup grated sharp cheese (something with a good strong flavour, like cheddar)
2 eggs, beaten
Herbs – you can use fresh or dried, Italian mix or Greek mix or any other kind of herb seasoning you want
Salt & pepper

Method

Grate the zucchini and then squeeze as much liquid as you can from it – smooshing it in a colander is probably the easiest way to do this.

Mince the onion finely. Try not to cry. Cry a lot.

Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine.

Form tablespoons of the mix into nuggets and leave for about 10 minutes to ‘set’.

Cooking

“Can we air fry it?”

Yes, we can!

Air fry for about 15 minutes at 190 degrees or until golden and crispy on the outside. Depending on your air fryer you may need to spray the basket with oil to prevent them from sticking.

Alternatively, if you haven’t enriched your life by purchasing an air fryer yet, you can put them on an oven tray covered in baking paper and bake them for about 15 minutes in a moderate oven.

Or, if you want some extra crunchy golden goodness, you can shallow fry them for a few minutes or even deep fry them.

My preference is the air fryer because:

a) I LOVE my air fryer

b) It delivers a crunchy golden outer with soft fluffy filling using virtually no oil

Serve with dipping sauces if you like, but honestly, they are pretty amazing on their own.

Makes about 24, depending on how large you make the nuggets.

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