All blog posts tagged with picnic food
Alfresco Friday - Zucchini & Feta Frittata
It is another glorious Alfresco Friday. By the magic of technology, even though I am off in Fiji enjoying a tropical paradise, I am able to give you an idea for your very own picnic by the beach.
I have prepared a Zucchini & Feta Frittata in individual serving sizes using the “cafe style muffin papers” which are available in the supermarket. I chose to make a vegetarian picnic food because I have become aware that I haven’t been making very many dishes suitable for vego’s on my site, a fact I will be rectifying in future posts.
Now because I have also become aware that some of my more “snug” clothing is being less than friendly of late, I am also going to include the calorie count on some of my dishes. Obviously, I am not going to do this for desserts etc, the fear factor is way too high!
So these little beauties are a delicious, cheesy, oily 155 calories. Or the same as eating a green apple. As this is Alfresco Friday my frittata’s were served with a green salad and coleslaw.
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups SR Flour
1 ½ cups grated cheese
5 Zucchini (grated)
2 onions (grated)
7 Eggs
200gm Danish feta (cubed)
50gm Sundried Tomato (chopped)
1 bunch coriander (chopped)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Prepare two muffin tins by lining with muffin papers.
Drain the grated zucchini and onion thoroughly in a sieve, press the mixture to remove all moisture.
Combine all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Spoon mixture into the muffin trays.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the frittata is golden and a skewer comes out clean.
This recipe makes 24 individual frittatas. I usually make a huge batch and freeze half in zip lock bags for later use. You could always halve the recipe if desired.
International Incident Party - Hotdog
Horror 1st batch of Hotdogs
Better 2nd batch of Hotdogs
Ok, it has taken me a little while to post my answer to the International Incident Party theme of Hotdog, mostly because I am so annoyed with myself for my efforts on the topic.
I make these cute little hotdog rolls every few weeks for the children and they always work well. This time, when I want to feature and photograph the little buggers they come out looking irregular shaped and boxey! Rest assured I will remake and rephotograph them, but in the meantime I am posting less than beautiful examples.
1st Batch Hotdogs
I will firstly explain what went wrong, so that no readers make the same mistakes.
- I had the house airconditioning on 17 degrees because I had been dying in the summer heat. I didn’t think it would matter because the bread dough was made in the controlled enviroment of the breadmaker.
- It did matter because I couldn’t get to the dough when it finished. So after proofing beautifully it deflated horribly. I persisted with the dough as it is usually very resilliant in the face of my haphazardness, but having the air conditioning on freezing I was struggling to get the “puff” I usually do.
- To add insult to injury, on my tortured dough I added frozen frankfurts. Straight from the freezer!
- Next I rolled them up as usual... but, I squeezed the hotdogs into a pan that was too small to allow any growth of the little snacks.
- I covered the buns with a tea towel for the second proofing. Obviously nothing was going to happen in the cold environment and packed into a little tray. But with the ultimate optimism I had the oven on warming 50 degrees, and left the buns to proof. It usually only takes ½ hour to get the nice puff. After about 1 ½ hours I decided that I didn’t have time to wait and baked them off.
- The result was less than spectacular! Then, because the hotdogs had taken so long it was nearly dinner time and I had a starving family. Everyone wanted one! This meant the family was breathing down my neck trying to “sneak” a taste while I was taking the images of the finished product. EPIC FAIL MUM! Oh the life of a foodie!
2nd Batch Hotdogs
So even though they are the ugliest Hotdogs, I have ever made they were well received by the family. They smelled divine cooking, and there are now none left, so obviously they tasted pretty good too.
2nd Batch Hotdogs
Bread Ingredients:
510gm Flour
7gm yeast
6gm salt
6gm sugar
20gm oil
310gm warm water
Filling Ingredients:
12 little frankies
4Tbs tomato paste
1 cup grated cheese
¾ cup diced fried bacon
Mustard to taste
1 Tbs sesame seeds
Method:
Prepare a baking tray with baking paper.
Place all the bread ingredients into a bread maker with the setting on dough.
Once dough is complete, place it on an oiled bench and with your hands, gently shape into a rectangle.
Spread the dough with tomato paste then add the cheese and bacon ensuring the ingredients are evenly distributed.
First batch of Hotdogs
Place the frankies on the dough and roll into little buns. Cut the buns away from the dough and continue until the dough is all rolled into hotdogs, and the hotdogs are all on the baking tray.
2nd Batch Hotdogs
Sprinkle the hotdogs with sesame seeds and cover with a clean tea towel to proof. If the house is cold place in a warm area , or use a warm (50 degrees) oven.
2nd Batch Hotdogs
Once proofed preheat oven to 180 degrees and cook for 15-20mins or until golden and hollow to the tap.
2nd Batch Hotdogs
So the second batch of hotdogs is now complete. They still aren't the most beautiful things I have made but at least they don't look mangled anymore. The bread is light and fluffly as it should be and they have a level of respectablity about them.
Spiced Portuguese Chicken
This is a great zingy recipe and very easy and healthy. Surprisingly it is not as hot as you would think and served with a salad or rice it is a delicious summery dish. It is tasty but next time I will add fresh chili for a little bit of heat. The recipe makes about six chicken breasts so you could make the dish for the evening meal, and then have leftovers for a picnic.
Marinade Ingredients:
1 red onion
5 cloves garlic
4 t/s lemon rind (2 lemons, reserving the lemon juice)
1 ½ Tbs chili flakes
2 t/s smoked paprika
3 Tbs oil
3 Tbs red wine vinegar
Ingredients:
1.2 kg chicken breast with the skin
1/3 cup chopped parsley
lemon wedges to serve
Method:
Place the marinade ingredients in a food processor and process to a smooth paste, add more oil and vinegar in equal portions in necessary.
Place chicken in a baking tray and cover completely with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and cook the chicken skin side up for 20 mins uncovered to colour the skin. Cover the tray with al foil and cook for a further 10-15mins until cooked through.
Remove the chicken from the oven, and place on a serving platter.
Sprinkle the chicken with parsley. Pour the reserve lemon juice in the cooking pan and deglaze. Pour the sauce from the cooking pan over the chicken and serve with lemon wedges.
Alfresco Friday - Corn Fritters
This was one of my favourite quick healthy dishes to make a while back, but some how it slipped from my mind until recently. It is one of those easy portable foods that can be cooked in seconds and taken on a picnic with a salad. The reason it has become forefront in my mind again is because I was looking for a vegetarian picnic idea and I remembered making this for my brother once. Naturally I had mine with smoked salmon and goats’ cheese, but his I served with a spicy guacamole. It is also a really nice addition to a brunch menu.
Ingredients:
300gm corn kernels
½ small red onion diced finely
1 egg
½ cup SR flour
1/3 cup skim milk
Method:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until just combined.
Heat a sandwich maker. Pour 1/3 cup of batter onto the hotplate, allow a little room for the fritters to spread. After 1 minute you can close the lid on the sandwich maker and cook both sides at once.
The mixture makes approximately five corn fritters.
Fritters can also be cooked in a frying pan with oil for a crunchy result.
Thai Lemongrass Kebabs
The festive season has now past, and for me it is time to get back into some healthier eating. I have been watching my clump of lemon grass grow brilliantly in the garden and I have been feeling very guilty. Since I planted it the weather has been much to hot to cook curries so it has been totally neglected.
As I pondered what to do with this unwanted grass I searched my mind for Thai dishes which are not hot, that feature lemon grass. The only dish which came to mind was Tod Mun Pla (Thai Fishcakes) but when I checked the ingredients the fishcakes didn’t require lemon grass.
My next thought was to skewer prawns and calamari on the lemongrass for a healthy kebab to be served with salad or rice. I collected the necessary lemongrass, trimmed the stems and prepared to soak the lemongrass skewers, all the time wondering how it would be possible to thread a prawn on such a fat skewer…
I realized before I even began that it would be a huge fail. Whatever was going to be attached to my skewers was going to need to be molded around the lemongrass. That is when it hit me. I could make a Tod Mun Pla, and mould the mixture around the lemon grass.
The final step which led to the skewers being made with chicken mince instead of fish, and being barbequed instead of deep fried was my desire to keep the flavour but lose some of the fat. Whilst I love fish, Thai fishcakes really need to be deep fried the traditional way to get that gorgeous flavour and texture. The chicken I thought would be right at home with the flavour and the healthier barbequing technique.
So here is my modified Thai Fishcake recipe, “Thai Lemongrass Kebabs.”
Ingredients:
3 tbs red curry paste
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs cornflour
1 tsp brown sugar
1 egg white
1 tbs chopped coriander root
1 tbs chopped coriander leaf
1 lime (juice only)
2 1/2 tbs finely grated ginger
5 garlic cloves
1 red chilli finely chopped
1 green chilli finely chopped
900g lean chicken mince
1 cup breadcrumbs
20gm snake beans, (trimmed an thinly sliced)
2 Kaffir Lime leaves (thinly sliced)
15 lemon grass stick soak for an hour in water
Method:
Soak the lemongrass in water for one hour.
In a food processor blend the first 13 ingredients until you had a smooth liquid. Add the chicken mince to the food processor ¼ at a time until all the chicken meat has been mixed into the spices and the mince is smooth.
Remove the mince mixture from the processor and place into a large bowl.
Chop the beans and kaffir leaves into very thin slices and add to the chicken mixture. Slowly add the breadcrumb to the mince, only use as much as necessary to achieve a tacky, stable consistency.
Mould the meat mixture around the lemon grass skewers and refrigerate for at least half on hour before cooking to firm. You will still need to be very careful with the skewers when you place them onto the hotplate.
Until the skewers have been cooked on two sides they may still fall off the lemon grass. These skewers can be cooked over a low heat on the BBQ or in a pan with oil.
If you choose to make the lemongrass shorter you could even deep fry them.
Serve the kebabs with a Thai dipping sauce or sweet chili sauce.
Alfresco Friday - Zucchini & Bacon Loaves
I am enjoying Alfresco Friday, it is giving me the chance to prepare some of the great picnic foods I pour over in magazines. I love getting dinner cooked and packing it up in a hamper. We then head off to the beach or park with the family. There is no more relaxing way to start the weekend.
This Alfresco Friday is the calm before the storm. It is Christmas tomorrow! I have chosen these little zucchini loaves because I think that a nice light meal with a glass of champagne on the beach would make an ideal Christmas Eve dinner.
It is a very easy dish to make, so if you have to bring a plate to a friends place this would be a delicious and quick option. It is great served either hot or cold and freezes well.
Ingredients:
2 t/s oil
1 large onion (finely chopped)
4 medium zucchini (grated)
250gm bacon (diced)
1 cup grated cheese
¾ cup SR Flour
4 eggs
¼ cup olive oil
Method:
Preheat oven to 160 degrees
In a pan fry the onion and bacon with the 2 t/s oil until the onion is translucent.
In a bowl mix together all the other ingredients adding the cooked bacon and onion. Once combine pout the mixture into your choice of dish for baking. It can be made in a quiche dish or in muffins tins as individual serves.
Bake for 20 mins or until golden and firm.
Have a very Merry Christmas!! I hope Santa is good to you!
A Gourmet Experience
A gourmet experience is more than a fancy candle lit restaurant, and a view of the city lights. I remember a few years ago a friend started seeing a new man. She mentioned he was taking her out that evening. Next day, like a good friend I call up to get the gossip.
He had turned up with a picnic blanket, a bottle of wine and a newspaper roll of hot chips. They had a moonlight picnic on the beach with champagne and chips. How romantic! Now I realise this is more romantic than gourmet, but the lines always blur for me.
Collecting a few ready made items and heading to a quiet location makes the ultimate, simple, gourmet getaway.
Keeping with the feeling of simple is best, I decided to prepare nothing except a container of greens and herbs from the garden.
The remainder of my picnic “supplies” will be purchased from the local IGA at the Jetty Coffs Harbour and K’Pane Bakery just next door. Both of these stores have the most wonderful selection of gourmet produce, ideal for a lazy picnic.
At K’Pane Bakery, after much deliberation I chose a sourdough Ciabatta, and some Rosetta rolls. I deliberately refrained from looking at the sweets cabinet.
The Jetty IGA is locally owned and prides itself on having a great deli department. If you are looking for difficult to source ingredients, or gourmet sauces and condiments they have a great range to choose from.
As usual I over catered, but with so much yummy food who can blame me.
We commenced our picnic with some imported Brie, crackers and dolmades. I chose a huge wedge of a French Brie that I bought previously. My comment to Mr GG is that we just don’t make cheese like the French. The brie was liquid straight from the fridge, and the taste was a delicious, creamy, pungent liquid bliss. I was in heaven, hubby and I inhaled a $16 wedge in no time.
I had brought along a Wild Oats Semillon Blanc Sauvignon to enjoy with our picnic and found the slightly fruity white wine a perfect match with the cheese. It cut through the creaminess perfectly. We drank our wine, and watched the waves from our seats in the shade, and wondered if life gets any better than this.
Man can not live by cheese alone (…so I believe anyway) soon enough it was time to prepare some antipasto and salad rolls on the lovely fresh Rosetta rolls. I can’t really claim to have been hungry, but my delicious “supplies” were calling, and I was looking forward to consuming them, with hubbies help of course.
I used a roasted vegetable pesto as a spread for the rolls and made a delicious salad sandwich of salami, sun dried tomato, Jarlsburg Cheese, Asian Greens from the garden, and coleslaw of fennel and hazelnut, basil and coriander (from the garden).
A perfectly delicious way to spend the day! As we lazed on the beach with our full bellies, the tide turned and started to rise, which chased the others off the beach. We were able to enjoy the beach in virtual solitude.
What is a meal with out dessert? As I was leaving the IGA I noticed some Turkish Delight and thought they would make the perfect sweet ending to our picnic. They were lovely and soft and sticky, a perfect mix of sweet and floral.
In all we spent a huge six hours lazing around at the beach. We had consumed so many luscious tid bits of delicious food. What a great way to spend a Sunday, I am relaxed and recharged ready to start another week.
Jetty IGA & K'Pane Bakery are both located in the Jetty Village Shopping Centre, 361 Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour.
My question to all is, what do you find is the best way to relax on a Sunday afternoon?
Muff Burger
It is perfect spring weather in Coffs Harbour at the moment so I intended to make the sunshine and enjoy a sunset picnic at the beach with a bottle of wine and some nice food.
My mum had also given me a recipe which showed a lovely Antipasto Cob. So for once in my life I was organized with the recipe for my website which would suit my picnicing intentions.
Then, as I was perusing my favourite food bloggers sites, what do I see staring out at me? The perfect Muff! My cob was really called a muff, and the lovely Connor from “Hold the Beef” had already done the muff to perfection. Seems the layered cob goes by two names, and probably the truest to its origins is the Muffuletta or “muff” for short. Read here for the muff story.
So my dilemma, do I do the muff regardless, or do I change my dish… my problem was, I actually loved the look of Connors muff. That was the dish I wanted to bring to the picnic…
The epiphany which led to the creation of the “Muff Burger” was my three year old daughter’s meltdown when I told her that she couldn’t have hamburgers for breakfast. The only way to stop the tears and get her to pre-school was to promise hamburgers for dinner, and that’s when the light bulb went off in my head. I would make a Muff Burger and Mini Muffs for the kids so they could have the fillings they liked, (meat, cheese and coleslaw).
So here is my Aussi Muff Burger, and yes, I have had no end of fun with the innuendo surrounding the muff. Feel free to continue in the comments section below.
Ingredients:
1 Lg Cob
3 large lettuce leaves
1 bunch rocket or endive leaves
8 slices beetroot
1 tomato
1 cup caramalised onion (see recipe)
10 slices Jarlsberg cheese
1 cup coleslaw
Meat Patty Ingredients:
750gm beef mince
250gm lamb mince
1 lg onion (finely chopped)
3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
1 cup bread crumbs (use the inside of the cob)
2 eggs
1 t/s cumin
1 t/s salt
pepper
½ cup tomato paste
1 T/s Parmesan cheese
The meat patty recipe is taken from my “Townsville Greek Festival” cookbook. It is a Greek meatball dish which is just delicious. You will find you will have enough meat leftover to make meatballs to freeze for another meal.
Method:
Make the Caramalised Onion per recipe, leave to cool.
Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees. If your cob isn’t crusty and hard, bake the cob for about ten minutes until it is crisp. Remove from the oven and cut the top of the bread.
Scoop out the insides on the cob, leaving about 1cm of bread to support the filling.
To make the breadcrumbs for the meat patty, place the bread which was removed from inside the cob onto a baking tray. Cook until golden brown and dried out.
Place the bread pieces into a food processor and process until the bread resembles commercial bread crumbs.
In a bowl add all the meat patty ingredients and mix by hand until well combined.
Grease a small round dish which is a similar size to the cob. The meat patty needs to be cooked as one patty and you want it to make one complete layer across the cob.
Push the meat firmly into the dish and bake for about 15-20 mins on 180 degrees. Allow to cool a little.
Assembly:
Because the fillings for my muff are quite moist I started with a layer of lettuces leaves (from my garden) to protect against a soggy bottom.
Next I added a thick layer of coleslaw and spread it evenly over the lettuce.
The following layer was the meat patty which took a little maneuvering to get it in the smallish opening. Once the layer was in place I pushed the fillings down to ensure there were no spaces.
Spread a layer of caramalised onion over the meat. My aim was to alternate between a solid layer and a softer layer for texture and to allow the fillings to compress more easily. I finished with a layer of cheese to protect the top layer of bread from any soggy fillings.
The muff layers were bulging about 2cm beyond the cob. Next I covered the muff in plastic wrap and put a book on top to compress the filling. When I placed the bread lid on the muff I realized that because I had taken the soft bread from the lid as well, I could have added another layer to the muff. You can see in my photos there is a gap between the lid and the last layer.
I served the muff about 2 hours after making it at room temperature. It was moist and delicious and a great picnic food. Much more special than plain burgers! I used tiny dinner rolls for the kids which was an ideal size. Plus the design of the muff means the filling won’t fall out! Win!
There something pretty great about watching your kids running around on the beach as the sun goes down.
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Have Your Say
I wish I had you for my mum when I was 5!
That cake would have been the talk of the town for the rest of the year - fantastic job.
A lot of your blogs will be interactively design and style that visitor share data to read your blog.
Thank you so much, it is going to be a wonderful surprise for my Mum, I wish everyone a great day with your own special people, those who helped you become who you are today.
Mum definitely deserves the hamper, because she is an amazing woman that has brought up 3 kids through tough times. She is the best mum a son could ask for.
She's had it tough, working hard
deserving much more than just a card
So let's raise a glass and toast her true
The best person in the world - Mum, that's you!
Thanks for the info on Rasa Malaysia's book. I used to visit her website for recipes but some time ago, igot a new PC and forgot to bookmark it!
You're too modest Julie! You did a great job with the cake! :D
Yellow strawberries and cream is just perfect for mum as a reward for putting up with two kids who were a pain in the bum.
I would have loved to have seen those martini glasses! Hope Miss A had a lovely time celebrating turning 5 :D
It shouldn't. It should go to me as whilst trying to make sure my mum, step-mum, MIL, Step-MIL, 3 x Grandmas are spoilt on Mother's Day, I always seem to get forgotten!
My poor old mum is battling to care for my step dad who has advanced Parkinsons. My real dad who has had a stroke still expects her to be there for him, my bro is going bankrupt and she lives two states away from her only gransdon. Her life has little joy- JUst wish for one thing nice to happen to her. We all love our mums, good luck to you all!
Perfect place to relax and forget about all the troubles we have in the city and just unwind ~ can't wait to go to somewhere like this hehe
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