Recipes

Hedgehog Slice

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

20150726_165137

Our local library invariably has a small display of books that are for sale. These are either former library books or (I am guessing) they are books that people have donated that the library has chosen not to add to its collection. That’s the only way I can explain why some have barcodes and some don’t. The books are always insanely cheap (20c for a paperback) and while the number and range available varies widely, it is always worth spending a minute or two perusing.

A month or so ago I picked up Basics to Brilliance: Slices Recipes, put together by Family Circle and published only a few years ago. For some reason, I have it in my head that now that Master 4 is at pre-school (and soon to be at school) slices should be a part of my repertoire. I don’t know why I think that – I’m not the type of parent who includes sweet treats in a lunch box and we certainly don’t have cake and friends all the time at home.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time poring over this book and even managed to induce some cookbook envy in at least one friend. Even though the book was only published in 2007 the recipes definitely have a slightly old fashioned feel to them. I’m not sure that had this book been produced in the 70s or 80s it would have been much different.

And that is a good thing – there’s a reason why classics are classics. Some things just work and taste good. And don’t need trend driven labels attached to them.

Last weekend we were heading to my cousin’s house for my aunt’s birthday celebrations and we were planning on taking a plate of charcuterie with us. However, a quick check meant my cousin requested something sweet and, on very limited time, I consulted the book and found the hedgehog slice.

Many slice recipes are a bit time consuming because you have to deal with layers. Not so the hedgehog and it has the bonus of being a refrigerator cake – no oven and perfect if you are wanting an activity to do with a small child. If you are really pushed for time then you can skip the ganache topping.

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Hedgehog Slice

Ingredients

    hedgehog
  • 125g unsalted butter
  • ½ cup caster sugar
  • 125g plain, sweet biscuits (I used a plain shortbread)
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • ½ cup coca powder
  • 1 egg
    • ganache
  • 125g dark chocolate
  • 30g unsalted butter

Instructions

  1. Line a 20cm square tin with foil. If you only have a larger tin - don't worry. The hedgehog mixture is very thick and will stay in one part of the tin.
  2. In a pan, heat the butter and sugar until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved.
  3. Lightly crush the biscuits. Put them in a freezer bag and give them a gentle beating with a rolling pin.
  4. Chop the walnuts. I did this in the food processor - you want them reasonably chunky so with a knife would be fine.
  5. Lightly beat the egg.
  6. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, reduce the heat to low and add the biscuits, cocoa and walnuts. Stir well and then remove from the heat.
  7. Allow to cool a little and then mix the egg through thoroughly.
  8. Pour into your pan and flatten off. Put in the fridge to set.
  9. Once the hedgehog is set (this will only take half an hour to an hour), make the ganache. Melt the chocolate and butter together (in the microwave for speed and ease) until smooth, allow to cool and thicken slightly and then spread over the hedgehog.
  10. Using a fork, create a wavy pattern if desired.
  11. Refrigerate again. When ready to serve, cut into squares. It should make around 16-20 pieces.
  12. Best served straight from the fridge.
https://eatingadelaide.com/hedgehog-slice/

Salt and Pepper Squid

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

20150617_203113

We have a philosophy when buying new household gadgets – particularly kitchen ones. If we think we need something we will invariably buy a cheap version of whatever it is to test out how much we do actually need it. The idea is that if said thing breaks within a year then we get a replacement under warranty and if said thing breaks after a year we have an idea whether or not we should invest in a more serious version of the gadget.

This is great in theory. In practice, what happens is that we buy a cheap or moderately priced thing, we use it and it lasts forever. Our coffee machine was £50 – eight years and two countries later, it is still motoring along very nicely. Another great example is the cheap deep fat fryer. It’s a house brand model from one of the cheaper department stores and while it doesn’t get the beating the coffee machine does, it is used regularly (and loaned out regularly) and is yet to miss a beat. $30 well spent.

It has been over a year since we visited salt and pepper squid, and this time we used a recipe we got from a That’s Life bonus magazine. Unfortunately the recipe doesn’t appear to be online.

I prefer the flavours in this approach – much brighter, more complex and with more depth. We deviated from the recipe (of course) because there were some ingredients we didn’t have (either at all or readily to hand) and we turned it into a one step process.

I think a great way of working next time would be to use the spice mix here, but take the egg white and rice flour approach of the previous attempt. We just need to convince my uncle to catch us some more squid …

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Salt and Pepper Squid

Ingredients

    Spice Mix
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp ground white pepper
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • ¼ tsp chilli powder (you may wish to amp this up)
  • squid
  • cornflour
  • salad to serve

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in the deep fat fryer.
  2. Please the cornflour and spice mix in a plastic bag and give a good shake before either tipping into a bowl and coating the squid or putting a couple of pieces of squid into the bag and shaking. If you do put the squid in the bag, don't put lots of pieces in at once, otherwise they'll just clump together.
  3. Fry the squid in batches. Drain on kitchen towel and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining squid.
  4. Serve immediately with sliced fresh chilli for decoration.
https://eatingadelaide.com/salt-pepper-squid/

Healthy, veggie-packed chicken burgers

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

20150511_205931

My attempt to find slightly healthier things to add to our diet is failing miserably. The problem is not so much that I fail to find healthy, delicious food or even cook it. That part is easy. What is hard is stopping either Andy or myself from sabotaging things. A few weeks back I made a supposedly healthy omelette (not really sure about that since it was loaded with bacon and potato) and Andy ‘finished’ it with a ridiculously generous grating of cheese.

And then earlier this week, I found this recipe for ‘herby chicken rissoles‘. Now, ‘rissole’ is a word that makes my skin crawl. If I had to pick a least favourite word this would be up there. Really. It’s horrible. It smacks of grey, bland, the worst excesses of the 1970s. ICK!

Also, I am not generally a fan of things made from mushed up chicken. Chicken sausages, as a rule, are quite frightening things. I’m pleased to report we have found an exception to that – my dad’s butcher (Brighton City Meats) makes these amazing chunky chicken sausages. They are chock full of big pieces of meat and have tons of texture in addition to flavour. And texture is the thing that chicken sausages and rissoles or burgers often lacks. People can   view this here for the best restaurant franchises. 

So I was interested to see how a home made chicken patty, rissole or burger would stand up to my somewhat critical eye.

We completely ruined the health aspect of this. With 500g of chicken mince we made a just a few enormous burgers (the original recipe suggests making 4 small rissoles from 100g of chicken mince) and we then put them into bread rolls, loaded with salad and and a smear (or two) of aioli. And in my case topped with a generous heap of kim chi …

Naturally, we also set one aside to feed to the small child who enjoyed it. If you are a parent who disguises vegetables, these burgers may be a way of sneaking zucchini and carrot past picky eaters.

On their own, the burgers did suffer a bit from a homogeneity of texture, which could potentially be fixed by a coating of panko before frying. Or by eating them in a roll – because the crusty roll and crunchy lettuce go a long way to adding necessary texture.

I think these would also work very well on a much small scale as a canapé. Again – you would need a panko crumb and you would also need a dipping sauce to serve alongside them. Something like a mojo picon would work beautifully.

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Healthy, veggie-packed chicken burgers

Ingredients

  • 500g chicken mince
  • 3 cloves of garic, crushed and finely chopped
  • ½ cup of breadcrumbs
  • 1 zucchini (courgette), grated and if possible drained
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • packet of chives, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper - to taste

Instructions

  1. Mix the chicken mince with all the other ingredients. If you have not had a chance to drain the grated zucchini, you may find you need to add more breadcrumbs.
  2. Season well.
  3. Take a small ball of mixture and fry up to check seasoning.
  4. Form the mixture into bite size balls, rissoles or burgers, depending on how your planning on using it. Set the shaped mixture onto trays that have been lined with baking paper, lightly dusted with flour. Put in the fridge and leave to firm up for at least an hour.
  5. Add some oil (spray oil if you wish) to a pan and heat over medium-high heat and cook the burgers until done (timing will depend on how big you have made them!).
  6. You could also cook these on the barbecue.
  7. Alternatively they can be cooked in advance and reheated when you wish to serve them.
https://eatingadelaide.com/healthy-veggiepacked-chicken-burgers/