Tag Archives: easy

Coconut Panna Cotta

11 Sep

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy

One of the many things I love about being Italian is the dessert. I have a sweet tooth, courtesy of my dad, and I’m learning to make peace with that and all it brings (including having a perpetual layer of fat around my formerly flat stomach). After all, it was a wise person who once said “life’s too short to skip dessert.” With those wise words in mind, I decided to attempt a fairly traditional Italian dessert that I’ve only ever eaten once or twice; panna cotta.

I’ve typically avoided panna cotta in the past because my stomach hasn’t always agreed with desserts of the creamy or custardy nature. Not sure why, but I always ended up feeling incredibly sick after eating anything with a lot of cream in it. Never ice cream though, only ever cream. I know, I was a weird child. How ever, I’m finding that the older I get and the more in love I fall with all things food, the more willing I am to try things that have previously not agreed with me. After flicking back over a few photos from a work function around a year ago and noticing a little lump of white, I remembered that little lump was, in fact, a white chocolate panna cotta. And I loved it. I wasn’t super confident in my abilities to replicate it and not let myself down, so I decided to try a coconut panna cotta instead (as you know, I am ever so slightly obsessed with coconut!).

The inspiration for my recipe came from dessert king David Leibovitz’s recipe for the Perfect Panna Cotta. But, of course, with my own twist. Here’s what you’ll need for your own coconut-infused piece of heaven (makes 6 small cups)…

  • 400ml coconut cream
  • 40g caster sugar
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 2tsp powdered gelatin
  • 3 tbsp cold water
  • 3tbsp desiccated coconut
  • coconut spray oil

Yup, that is seriously all you need. This really is very easy, no tricks – I swear!

Ok first things first. Put the coconut cream and the sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, until the sugar dissolves.

Take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium bowl (don’t go too small, as you’ll be adding the cream mixture into this bowl later), and let it just sit for 5 minutes or so.

Ok, once the gelatin has rested, gently pour the warm coconut cream mixture into the gelatin, and stir until the gelatin dissolves.

Next, add in the desiccated coconut, and mix that in too.

Lightly spray 6 little ramekins with the coconut oil spray, and pour the panna cotta mixture, evenly splitting the mixture between them.

And guess what? You’re done! That’s literally all there is to it! Put them in the fridge, let them set for at least 5 hours (overnight is better if you can wait!), and then dig in!

First up, I sprinkled mine with a little shredded coconut, because in my world, there’s no such thing as too much coconut!

I nervously dug my spoon into my panna cotta, and got ready to potentially be quite sick…

… and WOW!!! It was delicious!! It was soooo soft and silky smooth, studded with the tiny, little bits of desiccated coconut. I was really surprised, actually – I didn’t think I’d be able to make something that I hadn’t ever really eaten before!

The only thing I thought I could have improved on was the coconut I topped it with – toasted coconut would have been much better… so, I justify my second panna cotta with that reasoning.

Yeah, winner. Massive winner. The toasted coconut just brought out the coconut flavour so much more, and the crunch really added another dimension of yum to it all! I was really glad I finally gave it a try, and since then, have being trying even more foods that I never really liked before – and guess what? I really like a lot of them now! Yay!!

Over to you guys – what have you grown up hating to eat and now love?!

White Chocolate and Coconut Ice Cream

11 Jul

Multicultural Inspiration from…

family  


  
“I feel like ice cream.”
“We don’t have any.”
“I know… I could make some..?”
“It wouldn’t freeze in time to eat it tonight.”
“I know… I could make some for tomorrow night…?”
“Do you even know how to make ice cream?”
“I could Google it…”
This was the conversation that went on between Sous-Jeff and I on Friday night. Ice cream cravings are a killer. And they must be dealt with swiftly. On goes the computer and I click onto Google.

Dad discovered the ice cream attachment to mum’s Kitchen Aid last summer, and has been making the most amazing ice cream ever since. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the ice cream attachment, or the patience to make dad’s super chocolate. I do, however, have some standard Kitchen Aid attachments, a spare $10, and just enough energy to get down to the super market and back. I also had possession of a recipe that would produce a batch of ice cream quite quickly and with minimal effort and ingredients. This, I had to try.

I adapted my ice cream recipe from this one found on the recipes.com.au website. I looooove the combination of any chocolate with coconut, and have really been enjoying the white chocolate lately, so I decide to stick with that combo.

All I needed to make it was:

  • a 395g tin of sweetened condensed milk
  • 600ml cream (I used 300ml light cream and 300ml standard cream)
  • 1/4 cup coconut rum
  • 1/4 cup dessicated coconut (I used 1/2 cup dessicated, 1/2 cup shredded – I told you I like coconut!)
  • 1/2 packet Nestle white chocolate melts, melted (I may have used 3/4 of a packet… and broke the rest of the packet up into smaller pieces to add in later…)

All you need to do is melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water…

… combine the creams, condensed milk and rum in a bowl…

… and then I put the flat beater attachment onto my Kitchen Aid, but I’m guessing you could just do this part with electric hand beaters (it’d just take a bit longer).

I also decided that putting the guard on would be a good idea, having an inkling that this process could get messy (and it did)…

… and I just left the Kitchen Aid to do it’s thing for 15 minutes or so, until it was nice and thick like this..

Add in the melted white chocolate, white choc chips and coconut, and gently fold in..

… until it looks something like this…

… and pop it into a plastic tub and into the freezer over night!

With the ice cream freezing away, Sous-Jeff and I put on a dvd and fall asleep, almost forgetting about our little creation… Until about 10am the next morning when I simply cannot wait any longer and absolutely MUST try some!

I had my concerns, with this not being a “real” ice cream, made in a “traditional,” proper fashion, but upon tasting a scoop of this creamy, sweet goodness, all of my concerns vanished.

It scoops out relatively easily, and has the beautiful silky, creamy taste of the condensed milk (which I love), complementing the coconut and chocolate perfectly. I may have put a little too much chocolate in there, but that didn’t bother me too much! Sous-Jeff on the other hand thought that it detracted from the ice cream a little.

I also discovered another fabulous add in to my ice cream – I had some left over egg whites from something else I’d made the afternoon before, and whisked them up with some sugar and some more coconut, baked them in the oven for 20 minutes or so, crumbled them up and added my newly made coconut macaroons to my ice cream – YUM!!!

Over to you lovely readers – if you could make any flavour ice cream, what would it be? And what would you top it with?

Quick and Healthy: Stuffed Mushrooms and Polenta

6 Jul

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy

   

Another long day at work, not much left in the fridge the day before grocery day, and another quick and healthy dinner required. And to make it even harder, I’m attempting to go gluten free at the moment. So no quick bowl of pasta or cous cous for me!

Why gluten free? For reasons that are my own, I haven’t been entirely kind to my body lately. And it is suffering for it. I’ve been feeling quick lethargic, sluggish, bloated, have put on a few kilos (which bless them, my lovely friends have been kind enough to ignore and not draw to my attention – don’t worry guys, I plan on having the weight I put on off within the next 8 weeks!) and I actually have a pimple (I never ever ever get pimples – in fact, I got teased at high school for not having any!). After some of my own research, a chat to a nutritionist, and a good hard look at Leanne Vogel’s blog “A Healthful Pursuit,” I decided to try out a month of no alcohol and no gluten. The reported benefits of a non-gluten diet include easier digestion, less bloating, improved concentration and a decrease in sugar and fat intake. I may go into my reasons behind trying this out and why I’ve been so horrible to my poor body in another post, but for now, let me know you one of my first gluten free Quick & Healthy meals…

First, turn on the oven to around 220°C, and grab 5 medium sized mushrooms, take out the stalks and cut a little more flesh out of the middle, to make little holes like this:

Next, dice up some veggies – my favourites are butternut pumpkin, zucchini and eggplant, with a few cherry tomatoes thrown in too. Put them on a lined baking dish or tray, spray a little oil and sprinkle with sea salt and herbs – I like thyme for this dish. Then, into the oven while you get everything else going.

While the veggies are going, grab 2 handfuls of baby spinach and roughly chop. Put a tiny bit of spray oil in a small saucepan and add in a tablespoon of pine nuts and toast them until golden brown. Add the spinach in and cook until wilted, then throw in a little bit of lemon zest and salt and set aside.

Heat another spray of oil in a fry pan and heat the mushrooms a little on each side.

Once slightly browned, take them off the fry pan, and put a small spoon of ricotta in the holes.

Spoon a bit of the spinach mix on top of that…

… sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top (if you want)…

… and quickly pull the oven tray out with the veggies, pop the mushrooms onto the end, turn the heat down a little, and put it back into the oven!

While I was waiting for that, I decided to quickly whip up some soft polenta, because I absolutely LOVE it! Half a cup of milk and half a cup of water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, slowly adding the cornmeal bit by bit, whisking as you go, until it’s nice and thick and yellow, trailing a little as you whisk, and coming away from the edges of the pot.

At this point, I like to throw in a small handful of grated parmesan and a pinch of salt, stir it up and spoon it onto my plate!

Out with the veggies and mushrooms, and onto the plate…

… and dig in!

The roasted veggies on the soft, creamy polenta takes me back to my childhood at my Nonna’s house, and the combination of the lemon, ricotta, spinach and pine nuts are one of my favourite -the zesty, citrusy punch with the crunchy nuts and creamy ricotta is just amazing! I know it might seem a bit time consuming, contrary to my “quick” label, but if you wash as you go, it actually is quite time efficient – by the time you’re ready to eat, all your dishes are done and you can just kick back and relax!

And over to you lovely readers – what are your current quick and healthy meals?

(*** NOTE: Not all of my next few posts will be gluten free, as I still have a few posts on the wait list to be blogged when I have time to write them up! But I swear, I’m not eating gluten in July!***)

Chocolate Mug Cake

1 Jul

Multicultural Inspiration from…

family


No, it’s not a typo. Chocolate mug cake. As in, chocolate cake, in a mug. Ready in 5 minutes. No joke. Before I give you the low down on getting this together, let me tell you how this marvelous recipe came into my possession.

Wayyy back a few years ago, I got an email from Sous-Jeff’s mum. She’s usually pretty good at sending amusing, tongue-in-cheek emails, so I always look forward to receiving them for a daily giggle. On this one particular day, I got an email with the subject title “FWD: Chocolate Mug Cake” and thought I might open it up to see a funny picture of chocolate in a mug, or a chocolate cake in the shape of a mug or something to that effect. What I found was quite another story.

What Sous-Jeff’s mum had passed onto me was a recipe for a chocolate cake which is made up in a coffee mug, out of plain, ordinary, always-have-them-at-home ingredients, and takes all of five minutes to put together and “cook.” You don’t even need an oven for it! I made this one about a week ago – I’d had a rotten day and nothing was going to help except chocolate cake. You know those days? A cookie or piece of chocolate just won’t cut it – you just need cake. Well, I was having one of those days. I didn’t have the energy, patience or calorie allowance to whip up an entire batch of chocolate cupcakes, so I went to my go-to comfort food in a hurry. Here’s how to make it work next time you have one of those days…

First, grab out a coffee mug. Just an ordinary, standard sized coffee mug. Take a good look at it and admire it, for it is about to become the vessel from which your chocolate cake will spring forth from. Also, grab out a proper tablespoon with which to measure your few ingredients.

Now, take 4 tablespoons or plain flour, 3 tablespoons of caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa, put them in the mug and mix.

Next, add in one egg, and mix thoroughly…

… until it looks like this:

In with 3 tbsp of milk, 1.5 tbsp of oil (olive, vegetable, whatever you have!) and a splash of vanilla extract…

… and mix it again.

This is optional, but being the coconut addict I am, I like to add in a tablespoon of dessicated coconut at this point…

Give it all another good mix, making sure to scrape all the flour and cocoa off the bottom of the mug and mix it into everything else. Now comes the fun part… put your mug into the microwave for approximately 3 to 4 minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave. It will start to “puff” up and tower over the top of the mug – do not freak out, this is perfectly normal. I don’t know how or why, but I do know I have made MANY mug cakes, and they’ve never completely over-flown or exploded in the microwave!

You’ll know it’s ready when it’s firm to touch on top and is starting to come away from the edge of the mug.

Yes, it looks kinda holey and bizarre and almost plasticy, but I promise it’s not! Tip it out onto a plate…

… and get ready to eat! Now, you can eat this however you want, but here’s how I like to do it: grab a serrated knife and slice your cake in half down the middle.
Then slather it in Nutella and a little shredded coconut!
I’ll be the first to admit, this cake isn’t the softest, fluffiest, moistest, fanciest, prettiest cake you can make. But when you have a craving for chocolate cake and you don’t have the time, energy, ingredients or equipment for a real cake, this really is satisfying!! It’s also delicious with raspberries and icing sugar, or with a bit of peanut butter on top! Enjoy :)


Moroccan Meatballs and Chickpeas

1 Jun

Multicultural Cuisine of…

Morocco

As I’ve mentioned before, I haven’t always been the most adventurous eater. In fact, I’ve been called a “fussy” eater more than a handful of times. One of the things in the great land of food I’m most frightened of is anything spicy. I am terrified of spice. I was scarred for life a few years ago when Sous-Jeff and I went to Nandos. Sous-Jeff is my polar opposite – the more spice, the better. In fact, if all of his taste buds are dead by the end of the meal and he can’t actually taste a thing, that’s a win for him. So when our grilled chicken wraps came out and the little flags were switched, with Sous-Jeff receiving my Lemon Herb with avocado wrap, and me accidentally biting into his Extra Hot wrap, it was a disaster. I literally couldn’t speak for the next 15 minutes. I couldn’t taste anything for the next 3 hours (pity, seeing as our next stop was a movie and I was really looking forward to my popcorn!), and I didn’t speak to him for the next day. Since then, I’ve even be frightened of sweet chilli sauce.

In a bizarre turn of events, I decided to make a Moroccan spiced dish for dinner. Sous-Jeff was intrigued and confused. Why in heaven’s name did a spice-a-phobe decide to cook this meal? Because, I say, I’m trying some new things and I want to branch out. And besides, I’m not putting that much spice in it.

This is my recipe for a super quick, easy and yummy dinner, travels well to work with me when I need to re-heat and eat on the run too. I didn’t actually pull this recipe from any book or magazine, I just had a look in the fridge and pantry to see what I had to work with, from there an idea was born, and I just ran with it!

The ingredients you’ll need to make this meal for two are:

  • 300g beef mince
  • 25g finely diced onion
  • 1 tsp Moroccan mixed spice
  • spray olive oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 150g diced red capsicum
  • 150g diced zucchini
  • 150g halved cherry tomatoes
  • 300g chickpeas
  • 1 tsp Moroccan mixed spice
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 1 tsp parsley
  • 50g low fat fetta

First up, put the mince, onion, Moroccan spice, and a little sea salt in a bowl, and combine with your hands. Shape into little, tablespoon sized meatballs. Heat some spray oil in a large fry pan over medium heat and cook the meatballs until browned and almost completely cooked inside.

Next, add in the garlic and lemon zest, and cook for a minute.

Turn the heat up to high and add in the capsicum and zucchini and cook for 3 – 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, or until the veggies start to soften.

In with the tomatoes and chickpeas next and the other little bit of Moroccan spice, again stirring with the wooden spoon, for another 3 – 5 minutes, or until the tomatoes start to fall apart a little.

Lastly, add in the lemon juice, a little more sea salt and parsley, stirring for a minute. Take the pan off the heat and divide up into two bowls. Top with some fetta, and enjoy!


See mum, I can cook something other than dessert!

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