This morning I am sure I heard the sound of all the mums in oz, letting out a collective sigh of relief, as their little darlings went back to school.  Winter school holidays are never my pick of vacations. We have had a lot of rain, and the kids have had colds, so it has been nearly three weeks of indoor activities. It’s fair to say I packed my four off to school with a big smile, a bounce in my step, and five minutes early this morning.

My youngest, “Little A” gets driven to pre-school after the bigger kids get on the bus.  The minute I opened the pre-school door I could smell the most gorgeous baking aroma’s. Sue the pre-school’s cook had made the kids a Russian Slice for morning tea. The smell was just too delicious! After dropping off Anais, I had to stop in at the kitchen.

Chatting with Sue she told me this was one of the kids favourite snacks and thankfully she was happy to share her recipe. Naturally I thought I would pass it on to my lovely readers.  This is a great recipe for a back to school treat. I am sure my kids will enjoy taking it to school tomorrow… if there is any left after their school snacks...

Oh the silence of an empty kitchen, I have found my happy place!

Ingredients:

300gm Butter

1/3 cup Golden Syrup

¾ cup brown Sugar

2 t/s vanilla essence

1 ½ cups sultana

 ¾ cup natural yoghurt

3 ¾ cups plain flour

3 ½ t/s baking powder

Method:

Melt butter, golden syrup, sugar, sultana and vanilla in a large saucepan until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.

Add the yoghurt and mix in the flour and baking powder.

Pour the mixture into a lined baking tray and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cut whilst warm. Cool in the baking tray.

I love a good melt and mix cake and this one is simple and delicious.  I am looking forward to the kids taste test after school.

 Maybe the house is just a little too quiet… 

Today on the third day of pizza I have prepared a heavenly creamy Garlic Prawn & Fresh Herb Pizza served with lemon. This is more than your average prawn pizza. I have included a cheese sauce base and a few other little surprises to give the pizza a real zing!

Follow along and let the salivating begin…

Don’t forget this is part of the Bakers Delight Pizza base promotion and I have some $5 Bakers Delight vouchers to giveaways to readers. All you need to do is tell me what gourmet pizza you would make with your Bakers Delight Voucher. The full details are at the bottom of this story.

Ingredients:

1 Fresh Bakers Delight Pizza Herb and Garlic Base

1/4 cup Dolmio Lasagna Cheese Sauce

3 Tbs Seafood Sauce (swirled on base… see pic)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

¼ cup chopped shallots

¼ cup chopped parsley

200gm garlic green prawns (deli counter at Woolworths)

chopped dill

chopped parsley

1 lemon sliced

Method:

Spread the pizza base with the cheese sauce.

Add a spiral swirl of seafood sauce to the base.

Scatter the shallot and parsley evenly over the pizza

Add the grated cheese ensuring even coverage.

Scatter the prawns over the pizza, don’t over crowd.

Bake at 220 degrees for 7 minutes.

Remove the pizza from the oven and add more fresh herbs and a squeeze of lemon.

Serve and enjoy!

This pizza is quick and absolutely mouth wateringly delicious.  It will be featuring on my Pizza Party menu for the State of Origin.

Give this pizza a try at home, I promise you will fall in love. The Bakers Delight Pizza Bases are available in a two pack at your local Bakers Delight store for only $4.90.

So tell me readers what do you think is the perfect event for a Pizza Party.  For a chance to try a Bakers Delight Pizza base “on the house” use the comments section below to share your pizza creation with me. I would like to know what you would call your pizza creation plus what type of sauce and toppings you would use.

You will need to “like” Gourmet Getaways on FB as the winners will be announced via FB on Saturday 9^th July.

Oh and please, please, please vote for my Berry Breakfast Pizza on the Bakers Delight FB page.

Now it is time to get down to the business of sampling the new fresh pizza bases sent to me from Bakers Delight. I decided to use one of the plain bases to make this yummy sweet pizza.  I hope the picture and recipe inspires you to create some gourmet pizza's of your own.

Just in case you do get inspired don’t forget I have some $5 Bakers Delight vouchers to giveaways to readers.  I want to know what gourmet pizzas you will make with your base. Check out the details at the bottom of the page to enter.

The first thing I noticed about the bases is that they are quite thick.  I decided to make good use of this volume by adding some toppings that may perhaps have too much liquid for a regular pizza base to handle.

The bases have also been pre baked at Bakers Delight which allowed me to create this delicious Berry Pizza without fear of the fruit becoming over cooked or the base becoming soggy.

Ingredients:

1 Fresh Bakers Delight Pizza Base

1/4 cup Strawberry Jam

1/2 punnet chopped strawberries

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup frozen mixed berries

1/2 teaspoon caster sugar

Vanilla Mascarpone Topping:

100gm Mascarpone

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon icing sugar

Method:

Spread the pizza base with strawberry jam.

Add the fruit to the base ensuring an even coverage.

Sprinkle the caster sugar over the fruit.

Bake at 220 degrees for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the Vanilla Mascarpone ingredients together and set aside.

Remove the pizza from the oven and drop teaspoons of the mascarpone onto the pizza.

This is the most deliciously fresh tasting pizza, it is loaded with fruit and makes a really quick “special” breakfast. I usually serve it with more fresh strawberries and mascarpone.

The Bakers Delight pizza base suited this pizza perfectly. I love that the pizza was ready for eating after only seven minutes cooking time.  This is a drastic reduction to the time it would usually take to cook pizza.

The fresh Bakers Delight Pizza Base lifted this pizza to a gourmet status. The fruit remained fresh and lush and the addition of the creamy vanilla mascarpone to the finished product was sublime.

If you would like to try a Bakers Delight Pizza base in the comfort of your own home I would you to share your pizza creation with me.  Use the comments section below to describe your perfect gourmet pizza. I would like to know what you would call your pizza plus, what type of sauce and toppings you would use.

Make sure you "like" Gourmet Getaways on FB as the winner of the vouchers will be announced on Saturday 9th July.

Don’t forget to vote for my Berry Breakfast Pizza on the Bakers Delight page.

Today I will be handing the front page over to Kristy, so she can tell you about a comfort food she made for Mr GG the other day.  Kristy is in Australia for six months to study English language at university.  She has been living with us since January this year and her English has been improving dramatically over her stay. Writing this article will be a great accomplishment!  Please make her feel welcome with lots of feedback!

Hello, everyone. I am Kristy from Hong Kong. I am very pleased to be invited by Julie to share my story with all of you. As mentioned before, I have been staying with Julie’s family since January of this year. During this period of time, I have found that I have totally changed into a new person. I did lots of things that I have never done in Hong Kong, one of them is cooking!

Before I came to Australia, my university had reminded me many times to bring some traditional Chinese recipes to cook with Julie, because she is very interested in cooking. However, I did not cook anything apart from instant noodles, so my friend gave me a bilingual cookbook to solve my problem. Marvelously, I can cook based on my memory without looking the cookbook, I am really surprised!

Recently, I made a Chinese Congee for my host father because he had an ear operation, he could not chew any hard food, and he could just eat mashed potatoes, yoghurt and ice-cream everyday. When I realized his poor situation, I remembered that my mother had made the Congee for me if I was sick and could not eat anything. It is creamy, tasty and healthy, so I can just swallow it without chewing. Thus, I decided to try cooking it for my host father. To tell you the truth, it was my first time to cook Congee. I was really worried I would fail, fortunately I succeeded. Here below is the cooking method. I hope you will like it, thank you very much!!

 Ingredients:

160 gm Rice

3cm piece Ginger (sliced finely)

100gm Chopped or minced meat 

1 -1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Rinse the rice and put it into a pot. Add 5 cups of water and the sliced ginger. Bring to the boil over high heat, and then keep on cooking over high heat for 2 more minutes. Then turn to medium heat and cook for 1-1/4 hour.

After the congee has been boiling for 30 minutes, stir it constantly to prevent burning and sticking to the pot. If it is too dry, you can add more water during cooking.

Season with salt and stir well. Turn off the heat and serve with other ingredients according to your own taste, such as chopped meat, sliced meat, diced spring onion or white pepper.

P.S.: In Chinese culture, we believe ginger can remove coldness and warm the stomach, so we usually add ginger to food in order to achieve the same therapeutic purpose.

Kristy used a seasoned chicken mince to add to Mr GG's Congee and the tasty was pure homely comfort.  Thank  you Kristy for looking after hubby, and thanks for sharing a bit of your culture with our family and visitors to Gourmet Getaways. I will have to get ill before you go so I can get you to make a bowl of Congee for me :)

There is a definite chill in the air at the moment, and I have been craving soups. I always make my own soups because I despise the taste of the canned or packet varieties… there goes my Heinz sponsorship :)

In the past I have given you my Thai Pumpkin Soup, my Pesto Pea Soup and my Salmon Miso Soup but today I will be sharing my version of an Italian Minestrone Soup.

Be warned readers, when I make soup, nothing is by half measures!  These babies are designed to give you a stock of soup which will see you through half the winter.  The ingredients will make approximately ten serves of Minetrone. I always have takeaway containers on hand to ladle each serve into ready for freezing.

Ingredients:

½ cup brown lentils (Uncooked)

440 gm 4 Bean Mix

500 gm Potato diced

195 gm Carrots diced

160 gm Onion

6 cloves Garlic chopped

1 bunch Fresh Basil Leaves chopped

2 cups Green Beans chopped

840 gm canned Tomatoes

2 litres Campbell's - Real Stock Vegetable Salt Reduced

Pepper, black

100gm Dry Pasta

1/2 cup Cauliflower chopped

1 tsp Tabasco Sauce

Method:

Firstly do you love the ingredients I picked from my garden? There are also some homegrown tomatoes in the pot too because I didn't have quite enough canned tomato.

Put all the ingredients in the largest pot you have which has a lid.

Cook over a low heat with the lid on stirring occasionally.  The soup will need to cook for 30-40 mins or until the potato and pasta has softened.

Add extra Tabasco sauce, pepper and basil to taste then serve.

I love to have my soup with homemade bread.  I usually toast the bread and add a bit of parmesan cheese, delicious.

Now whenever there is a chill in the air I have a ready supply of my Italian Minestrone Soup.

I have been returning to old favourites when it comes to soup.  Give me some suggestions for my next soup, what are your favourites at the moment? Do you have a recipe you would like to share? Please let me know.

I was more than just a little excited to learn that Masterchef’s Jimmy Seervai would be attending the CurryFest this year.

As I have stated previously, curry is not my specialty, so the knowledge that Jimmy “The Curryman” himself was going to give three cooking demonstrations throughout the day was music to my ears. The demonstration I was most interested in was the Prawn Curry. On Masterchef the Crab Curry was Jimmy’s signature dish.  The prawn curry he was preparing for the festival was an adaptation of this dish.

Jimmy was born in Indian and moved to Australia when he was just two years old. He grew up with the aroma of spices both at home in the kitchen, and in the family business, a spice store located in Ryde.

The family are marketing there own blend of spices for various styles of curry.  I sampled Jimmy's Prawn curry and I purchased a selection of the blends so I could recreate some of "The Curryman" magic at home.

In person Jimmy has a huge personality, more so than came across on the Masterchef program. Throughout the demonstrations he was chatting constantly about the show, letting tidbits of gossip out of the bag, and keeping the audience enthralled both in the cooking and the story telling.

I had been curious to know who actually cooks in the family. Seems that Jimmy is not only the Masterchef of the family, he is the only chef in the Seervai household. He said his wife has cooked about five meals in the time they have been together, occasionally she will make the announcement that she will cook, but Jimmy will come home only to find that the meal had not eventuated.

At that point in the story telling he would stop cooking and look over the audience heads and say, “oh no, I think she may be here…. I feel that death stare”

As he was speaking the rice was being put on to cook, and the Paratha's were getting underway.

Jimmy's assistant Harvinder

He told a story of coming home from work with a leg of lamb and announcing to the wife.  “I’m going to make lamb for dinner tonight.” He then went into detail about all the delicious things he would do with the lamb. Now I would suspect the usual response for most wives would be, terrific, thanks sweetheart. Jimmy said “not my wife, her response was, but I don’t feel like lamb”. There were laughs all round, and then more laughs when Jimmy check again to see that his wife hadn’t yet arrived at the festival.

Not all the jokes were at the expense of his lovely wife.  There were stories about mishaps on the Masterchef show, jokes about Indians v’s Australian cricket, it just kept coming and the audience appreciated the sense of humour whilst they salivated at the gorgeous aromas.

So here it is Jimmys Prawn Curry check out the family spice blends.

Jimmy's Prawn Curry

Serves: 6 – 8 (or closer to 200 if you are doing a cooking demo)

Ingredients:
1 kilo green prawns
600 ml coconut milk
300ml of fish stock
20gms palm Sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp spoons soy sauce
5 whole dried Kashmiri chillies (mild)
1 bunch fresh coriander
¼ Tsp tamarind (block – found in Indian Shops)
2 tsp sea salt
2 large tomatoes
50 ml of mild peanut oil
1 fresh lemon juice

Curry Paste:
2 large brown onions
4 cloves garlic
1 stick lemon grass
1 bunch of coriander roots
1 small knob of fresh turmeric
6 lime leaves
2 small red chillies
4 large green chillies
1 very large bulb ginger
1 small bulb galangal
7 curry leaves

3 1/2 tablespoons of Jimmys Special blend curry

¼ cup water

Method:

Roughly chop all the ingredients for the curry paste.

In a large frying pan over a low to moderate heat add the curry paste ingredient and oil. Fry until a slight brown colour is reached.

At this stage Jimmy told another story which I particularly wanted to share because it highlighted to me the feeling of community that is Woolgoolga, and what I see as some of our non urban appeal as a town.

Jimmy telling the story about the missing ingredients

Jimmy commented that he always tries to buy local produce for these types of demonstrations.  He had been out sourcing ingredients at local stores only to find he was having difficulty locating some vital ingredients such as lemon grass, curry leaves, okra.  In desperation he said to a store owner. “Why can’t I locate these items?” the store owner answered, “because there is no need to stock them, everyone just grows their own.”

When I moved here from Sydney I had the same problem. I would complain to anyone who would listen “How can they not stock…” Now I find that I may not grow a particular item myself, but I always know who does, and I get it fresh out of the garden.

Seems Jimmy was privy to the same hospitality. Before the cooking demonstration a lady brought the remaining items Jimmy had needed for his dishes from her garden.

Yesterday I noticed bananas were $12 per kilo in the supermarket.  Naturally I couldn’t justify the purchase. When I got home I found a large hand of locally grown banana’s on my doorstep.

Back to the recipe, add the chopped tomatoes, dried chili, chopped fresh chili and half the coriander, allow the dish to cook down further.

Now did I mention the Seervai family has their own blend of spices on the market?? The next step is to combine the “Jimmy’s Curry Spice” with water to form a paste.  Add the paste to the frying pan, allow it to cook whilst stirring occasionally.

Pour 300mls coconut milk, fish stock, palm sugar, tamarind, fish sauce and soy sauce. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook the curry until the mixture starts to thicken slightly.

Jimmy hamming it up for the camera & entertaining the audience

Add the peeled and prepared prawns and cook until the prawns are just coloured.

Squeeze the juice if a lemon into the curry and add the remaining coconut milk and chopped coriander just prior to serving.

Serve with rice and paratha.

For more recipes from Jimmy http://www.jimmysspicekitchen.com.au/

Now pretending I am a Masterchef judge… the presentation may not have been quite up to Masterchef standards, given the paper plates and plastic utensils... just joking!

I didn’t hear a single complaint as everyone lined up to sample “the curry mans” dish. I would have liked to get a final image of the Prawn curry but as the masses swarmed I quickly retreated to safety.

I can’t believe it has been so long since I updated!  The time is just flying and I don’t seem to be able to catch up at the moment.  Some readers may know I have three kids at home at the moment, plus a Chinese student from Hong Kong staying with us until June, (her name is Kristy).  One of my little ones has just started Kindy, and I can’t seem to get a good routine going at the moment.  Also more dear hubby had a surfing accident and ruptured his A/c joint. He has just had surgery to reconstruct the shoulder and is a little worse for wear at the moment.

I have so many wonderful stories to share from our recent trip to Fiji, but for today I will have to leave you wanting, and instead offer you a peace offering, my delicious Banana & Caramel Cupcake with Ginger frosting.

I hope you enjoy them, the caramel in the centre makes a nice surprise when you bite in...

Ingredients:

2 cups SR flour

1 t/s cinnamon

125gm melted butter

¾ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed banana

Filling:

Nestles Caramel Top

Icing:

1 ½ cups Icing sugar

Vanilla Essence

125 gm Butter (softened)

1 t/s ground ginger

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, and line a muffin tin with papers.

In a bowl add all the dry ingredients. In a plastic jug combine all the liquid ingredients.

Pour the liquid into the dry products and stir until combined.

Cook until a skewer comes out clean.  Cool.

Remove a semi circle of cake from the top of the muffins to allow room for the caramel filling. Fill the centre of the muffin with Caramel.

For the icing beat the four ingredients until light and fluffy. Pipe onto the cakes and then refrigerate.

I had a little fun with the presentation of these cakes.  Little Miss A kindly allowed me the use of her tea sets and dolls house furniture to photograph the cakes.  There was a proviso that she could eat the cake I was photographing when I was done. As you can see we struck a deal.

I know Australia Day has past for another year, but I wanted share a recipe with you for a very Aussie dish.  To capture the “taste” of Australia I made Kangaroo Rissoles with Riberry and Macadamia.  For those who haven’t tried Riberry, they are a native Australian fruit and they have a distinct Eucalyptus/berry flavour.

I had a number of reasons for choosing Kangaroo, firstly, its Australia Day, and you are not entirely Australian unless you consider putting a chunk of native wildlife on the barbie (for all the aussie vego’s and animal lovers please accept my apologises for the attempt at humour in advance- naturally you really are still Australian).  Also Kangaroo has a stronger meaty flavour than other meats so I knew it would stand up to the equally strong flavour of the Riberry. The macadamia was just to add a bit or crunch using our great native nut.

So there you go, the thought process behind the good old rissole. How did I go with the recipe?? The macadamia in the rissole was perfect but the Riberry could have been a little stronger. I made the Riberry mixture up by taste, and I loved the flavours when I tried it on its own, but for the rissoles there needed to be a little more Riberry. I have now adjusted the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 green apple diced finely

¼ cup water

¾ cup Riberry

¼ cup brown sugar

90gm Macadamia

1 star anise

1 kg Kangaroo mince

3 cloves garlic

2 eggs

1 cup breadcrumbs

Method:

Add apple, star anise and water to a saucepan. Boil with the lid on until the apple is soft. Reduce the heat and add the Riberry and brown sugar stirring to dissolve the sugar.

If you need a tablespoon more water you can add it. Once the brown sugar is dissolved continue to stir the mixture until the water has just evaporated. Turn the heat off.

Place the macadamia nuts into a bag and hit a few times with a rolling pin to break the pieces up a little bit. Remove the star anise from the Riberry mixture and add the nuts.  Leave to cool.

In a bowl add the mince, garlic, eggs, breadcrumbs and the Riberry.

Combine all the ingredients well. Form the mixture into 14 rissoles and place in the fridge until needed.

When cooking the rissoles only turn them when the base is completely cooked.

When cooking the rissoles try and only turned them once.

I am sure all my readers understand the reason for my Pineapple Frangipane Tart, but just to recap.  I was given this super pineapple corer and slicer for my birthday.  I got a little carried away making pretty pineapple rings.  Four fresh pineapples became one large container of perfect little pineapple rings.  Now my mission is to turn all of this sweet, juicy fruit into recipes that will appeal.

The first batch two pineapples went into Pina Colada’s for New Years, then my Hawaiian Pizza, now the Pineapple Frangipane Tart, the final pieces have been set aside for a Sweet & Sour Pork.  All the recipes will eventually make there way onto my site, and then we will give pineapple a brief break.

I made this tart a few days ago and it lasted one night in my house before the family had completely decimated it.  It's so light, tropical and delicious. I would probably add a little more coconut and swap the essence for coconut cream next time to give a more pineapple and coconut flavour, but it was truly gorgeous. The shortcrust recipe I have suggested makes the most crisp buttery pastry which was incredibly good with the tart.

Ingredients:

1 Quantity sweet pastry

100gm caster sugar

100gm butter

2 eggs

2 Tbs cornflour

2 t/s baking powder

100gm ground almond

1 T/s desiccated coconut

1 t/s coconut essence

5 ½ thin circles of fresh or tinned pineapple

Method:

Follow the directions for making the sweet pastry. Once pastry has been baked blind remove it from the oven and leave it to cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.

Place the butter and sugar in a mixer or food processor, beat until creamy then add the eggs.  Continue to beat until pale and fluffy. Add all the remaining ingredients to the mixer except the pineapple. Allow the mixer to run.

In the meantime evenly space the pineapple pieces on the tart base.

Pour the frangipane mixture carefully over the pineapple covering the fruit completely.

Cook the tart on a middle shelf for approximately 45 min or until the centre is set.  If the tart is becoming to coloured but has not yet set, reduce the temp to 140 degrees.

The tart can be serve hot or cold dusted with icing sugar.

Any fruit can be used in place of pineapple, just sprinkle it with a little caster sugar before adding the batter filling.  So tell me readers have I tempted you... what fruit would you add to your Frangipane Tart?