Saturday, March 20, 2010

Recipes!

There's not much of note going on in my life at the moment but in the spirit of keeping the blog posts up, I thought I'd post a few recipes that I rather enjoy or make on a regular basis. Some of them use cheats (such as ready made spice mixes etc) but I don't care so much for making stuff from scratch, but more about convenience.

Apple Slice

Ingredients:
-340g pkt golden buttercake mix
-1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut
-125g butter, melted
-400g can apple pieces
-300g sour cream
-1 tsp cinnamon (I've also used nutmeg or mixed spice, whichever you prefer)

Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 20cm square cake pan. Line base and the two opposite sides with baking paper, extending the paper 5cm over edge of pan.

  2. Combine cake mix, coconut and butter in a medium bowl. Press mixture evenly over base of prepared pan. Cook for 15 mins, or until lightly browned. Cool slightly.

  3. Spread apple evenly over base, then spread sour cream evenly over apple and sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. Cook for further 20 mins, or until sour cream has set.

  4. Cool in pan. Cut the slice into fingers to serve.

Now, I must say, I am not a fan of sour cream but this is super yummy. I don't even tell people it's sour cream on top until after they've tried it and it always gets a surprised reaction.

If you like quite a thick base, you can always double the cake mix part, also if you want a variation I've also used peaches or apricots.
Just a note - the first time I made this I was going by very hazy recollections of a recipe handed to me word of mouth and made the mistake of actually making the cake mix up as per the instructions on the mix packet and baking it. You actually just put the *dry* mix in a bowl and combine it with coconut and melted butter...

Chevup Casserole

Ingredients:
-One packet of Chevups (I use the normal ones but you could use the chilli ones if you wanted)
-One onion, chopped
-One carrot, chopped and pre-cooked until just tender
-Beans (however many you want, about a cup though)
-Peas and corn (same as above, I use frozen)
-Devilled sausage mix
-One tub of tomato paste

Method:

1. Cook Chevups in fry pan until done. Whilst the sausages are cooking, pre-cook the carrots until just tender.

2. Cut Chevups into quarters (bite size pieces), add onion, stir until brown, then add remaining vegetables.

3. Mix Devilled Sausage mix with tub of tomato paste and 1 1/2 cups of water and then add to sausages. Cook on low until sauce thickens.

You can also use normal sausages if you'd like but I prefer the spices in the Chevups. You can serve with mashed potato if you need to stretch the meal further or do what I do and use some fresh buttered bread to mop up the leftover gravy. Yum!

Apple and Peach Crumble

Ingredients:

- One large tin of pie apples (roughly 400gms)
- One large tin of peaches, drained
- 6 tablespoons of self raising flour
- 5 tablespoons of fine desiccated coconut
- 5 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons of butter

Method:

1. Layer apple and peaches in a medium sized but deep baking dish (I use a round casserole dish for this)

2. In a mixing bowl add dry ingredients and then rub in the butter. The above ingredients are from a recipe I have doubled and then modified. I doubled it because there wasn't enough crumble to really cover the apples and I took out some coconut and added a little more sugar. Add and subtract ingredients until you get a crumble you like.

3. Spread crumble over apple and peaches and bake in a moderate over (180C) for 20-30 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Serve either warm or cold with custard or icecream (or both!).




2 comments:

Hieronymous Anonymous said...

Ooh, that casserole sounds good, although I may have to tinker with the recipe a little (we're not fans of peas and corn)!

(Verification word: 'manises'. *sniggers*)

Acci said...

I made a great big pavlova the other day for a dinner party I went to. I thought of all you Aussie gals on occasion as I made it.