Steak Night

Matt's Julia's


Well on Sunday we usually have steak and Matt does the cooking, he is very proud of his meal so wanted me to post them to you. We have steak, an egg, homemade chips with a bit of cheese and Matt also has a mushroom sauce on his and this time some fried onion.

Kiwi Pigs in a Blanket

Well since we don't have packaged dough like there is in America or little cocktail sausages I have found a way to make a version of pigs in a blanket.

Ingredients
Sizzlers
Puff pastry
cheese

Place sizzler and a bit of grated cheese on puff pastry and roll dough around sizzler. Bake at 180F/350C or whatever the package for the pastry says. Once pastry is cooked it is done.

Pizza

I have found a pizza dough recipe I like, it is really easy and one batch can be stretched out to make a few different pizzas.

Ingredients
1 package yeast
pinch of sugar
1 cup warm water

3 cups Flour
1 tsp salt
1tbls oil

Combine the first three ingredients until the yeast gets nice and frothy. Add to the flour, salt and oil. Combine to make a dough and knead until it is not sticky. Let rise for at least 30 minutes or until doubled in size. I usually make it ahead of time and it rises alot but that is fine as well. Beat down and kneed a bit.

Now you can divide dough into however much you like. I made 3 pizzas and a few pizza rolls with one batch, but they weren't huge pizzas or too thick, you can always make it thicker if you like, just make sure the counter is nice and floured. Bake at 420F/220C for about 10-15 minutes until nice and melted and golden.

Here are some pictures of our latest creations.



Pepperoni Rolls, roll out place pepperoni, and mozzerella and roll up. I like to put olive oil and garlic salt on the outside.


My 'white' pizza, alfredo or carbanara sauce, mozz, garlic, parm and a bit of basil.

'Our' pizza, bbq sause base, bacon, ham, chicken, mozz

Matt's pizza, fried onion, mushroom, bacon, ham, tomato and mozz

Curry Puffs

I went to a Thai restuaruant the other day and tried these things called Curry Puffs, they were really good and I decided to try and make them myself. I didn't get it exactly the same but I think I got the basics down so now I can just try different variations. It is a good way to use some left overs as well such as left over meat and potatoes. Essentially it is deep fried pastry, why I never thought of this before is beyond me.

Ingredients
Puff Pastry
Meat with some seasoning, I used left over Chicken Tikka Marsala
Oil for frying

1. Heat Oil, I used a deep fryer but you could use a pot and some oil if you like.
2. Cut Puff pastry into squares, I used about 3inch squares.
3. Place filling/meat onto pastry and enclose, make sure it is sealed tightly. Might want to use some water or egg/milk wash it make sure you have a good seal, but I didn't use any and didn't have problems.
4. Place in deep fryer/oil. It will seem like the oil isn't hot cause there isn't the usual sizzle but it is and the pastry will soon rise to the top and fizzle away.
5. Turn over after a few minutes.
6. Once nice and golden brown and the pastry is starting to seperate a bit take out and drain.

Ingredients

Puff PastryCurried Meat, (I used some left over Chicken Tikka Marsala)

Cakes

Well I figured with having kids and many birthdays to come I thought I would work on some cake decorating. I am still working on it and my skills are fairly basic but I enjoy it and thought I would share some of my designs with you.

Update

Well I didn't have any pictures cause I hadn't made anything on there yet, but I have just made some Naan bread so check out the pictures, including how Matt and I eat things a bit differently. Will try and put some more stuff on here this weekend.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

Alright well in New Zealand they love slices, I wasn't really sure what they mean by a slice at first but it is something that is cooked in a pan of sorts and then cut (sliced) into squares. So here is a recipe that Joanna, my mother-in-law, gave me but for some reason I can make way better than her, I think cause I actually follow the recipe. It is really good, a bit time consuming cause I like to let it cool between a few steps but not difficult. H0pefully it translates to America.

Ingredients
Base
175g softened butter (about 3/4 cup I think)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tbls cocoa
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder

Caramel Filling
50g butter
3 tbls golden syrup (this is the part I am worried about, it is syrup but not maple just golden, that is what it says on the bottle, so have a look)
1 tin condensed milk (if you can find caramel flavored condensed milk, then it might take the golden syrup part away)

Base
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla
2. Add egg and beat well
3. Sift dry ingredients and mix thorougly
4. Press into a greased and floured pan. (I use baking paper as well)
Now I find that for a 13x9 pan I need to make this recipe 1.5 times or I double it and it makes a 13x9 plus one smaller. Will have to try and make one batch in a 13x9 but I like the base so like it a bit thicker. So if you have a smaller pan try that.

Also it will be very sticky and a bit hard to spread, so I dip my hand in some flour and that helps, just keep touching the flour and then the mix to help spread it out.

Caramel Filling
1. In a microwave safe bowl put all ingredients in and cook in micorwave for about 2.5 minutes
2. Remove and stir, let sit for 2 minutes
3. Return to microwave for a further 2-3 minutes.
Now it will look like it has curdled a bit but that is fine, I think it helps make it nice and firm. So just stir it out, it will look a bit smother and even if there are a few lumps left, don't worry you won't notice when it is done.

Now once base is cool, spread warm caramel filling. Now I put it in the fridge to let the caramel set, this is the part that takes awhile. Once set, which probably doesn't really take that long spread with chocolate icing. I like the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting I use for the brownies, or you can use any cocolate icing you like but you want it to be a bit solid.

Once 3 layers are done and set, cut into squares and enjoy. Now these are good just as they are, but I like to keep them in the fridge and eat them from there, just gives them a nice texture, but they are great as is.