Strawberry Pop Tart Scones

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I'm always bemused by the difference between scones and scones. You know, the English-style round ones with jam and cream, and the American triangle ones stuffed with things other than sultanas... thank goodness. I just can't come at a sultana scone.
When I saw this recipe for strawberry pop tart scones, I didn't even baulk at them not being round and familiar, like I usually do. All I knew is that I wanted them. I wanted their crunchy, breakfast-food-style strawberry goodness immediately, if not sooner. Pop Tart scones? Amazing.

Unfortunately it was nowhere near strawberry season when I made them, so I decided to add strawberry jam preserves instead of the fresh strawberries the original recipe called for. Not a bad idea, it turned out. Crunchy. Soft in the middle. Strawberry-y. I ate them for morning tea with a cup of coffee, but they could really be had any time. Breakfast, weekend brunch, after-school afternoon tea... you can even tell yourself they're healthier than a breakfast pastry. Probably because they are!

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
85g tablespoons butter, grated
1/2 cup cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup strawberry jam

Icing:
1/2 cup icing sugar
a drop or two of pink food colouring
Enough milk to get to the right consistency - a teaspoon at a time.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250C

2. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. Rub in the cold grated butter with your fingertips until blended and the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

3. Add milk, cream and egg. Mix until a dough forms, adding the jam half way through.

4. Pat dough into a large circle on a lined baking tray and cut into eight pieces. Separate the pieces about an inch apart and bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden.

5. Mix the icing and drizzle over.




So what do you prefer? The traditional English-style scone, or an American-style triangle? And what do you top them with?

Broccoli Cheese Soup

From: Rebecca Marshall
Sent: Monday, 14 June 2010 12:16 PM
To: Stacey Roberts
Subject: RE:


Honey there are some things broccoli should never be and soup is one of them. There is something vomity about it in liquid form anyway and you go and add cheese? What are you? On crack?
 
 
 
From: Stacey Roberts 
Sent: Monday, 14 June 2010 12:18 PM
To: Rebecca Marshall
Subject: RE:
Seriously. After all these years and all this Veggie Mama-ing, you still don’t trust me? Why would I bring to you a disgusting soup? It’s one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted. Rich and velvety, the thing is like nectar from the gods. Sure I was apprehensive the first time I made it, but I can’t imagine what life would be like without this soup in it. Ye of little faith.

Pah.

Meanwhile you had such a bad week with replacements last week. Wield the power and cut his darn copy.


Kind Regards,
Stacey Roberts
***** News Editor
 
 
From: Rebecca Marshall

Sent: Monday, 14 June 2010 12:21 PM
To: Stacey Roberts
Subject: RE: Well I expect a thermos of said soup at your earliest convenience. Until then you are safe from elimination and still in the MasterChef competition.




Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large head broccoli
2 potatoes, diced
1 litre vegetable stock
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese

Directions:
1. Saute the onion garlic in 1 teaspoon each butter and oil over medium heat until translucent.

2. Add the broccoli, potatoes and stock and turn up the heat. Boil 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are cooked.

3. Meanwhile, melt the 1 tablespoon butter in a small pan over low heat. Add the flour and cook 1 minute. Add the milk and whisk vigorously until smooth. Cook slowly until the sauce is thick and creamy. Add the cheese.

4. Blend the soup to a puree and add the cheese sauce. Serve with lots of delicious, hot bread.

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

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There's no need to be afraid of vegan baking.

Once upon a time I thought vegans ate nothing but weird meat analogues and nuts and seeds and other strange things this little country girl had never heard of. And lentils*. The horror!

Turns out I was wrong. Which happens sometimes when you actually learn about things rather than just assume. And I had a lot to learn.

The first time I baked a vegan cake, I could not believe the results. I was nothing if not a devotee to butter, and I knew how important eggs were for making things rise. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a well-flavoured, moist cake that's for sure.

All vegan baking really comes down to is perhaps some dairy-free margarine and something to replace the eggs - apple puree, vegetable oil, mashed banana - it isn't really difficult. And in fact can be quite helpful if you are halfway through a cake when you realise you don't have any eggs. Something I've done once or twice. Ahem.

As I've said before, I'm really fussy with my food. If it isn't amazing, I won't eat it. Life's too short, right? Well I'm rarely a cake eater, but when I do indulge it's only with something that isn't a waste of time and calories. Pleased to say this cake is neither.

Now this isn't my recipe, I've only tweaked it from the vegan guru Isa Chandra Moskowitz and her revolutionary book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It's the vegan cupcake bible, and Isa is the vegan baking messiah.

Anywhere you see extra flavouring, I've added cherry brandy essence. The rest I kept exactly the same. I also added chopped glace cherries to the top and sprinkled a little cocoa powder over. Try it! You might like it. I served these to the guests at my baby shower, none of whom are even vegetarian, let alone vegan.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a muffin or cupcake tray with liners.

2. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes. Add sugar, oil, extracts, and beat until foamy.

3. In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until there are no big lumps.

4. Fill liners 3/4 of the way and bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool before frosting.


Vegan Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dairy-free margarine (Nuttelex is good)
1 3/4 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A drop or two of cherry brandy essence
A drop or two of pink food colouring
1/4 cup soy milk

Directions:
Mix!

For more vegan deliciousness, visit the "links" bar at the top of the page. A whole new world awaits!

* lentils are delicious. Little did I know...

Cookie giveaway winner

So, last week I remembered it was actually my blogobirthday or blogoversary or whatever it is while I was in hospital with Veggie Baby.

I thought baking cookies would be a terrifically lovely birthday present to give away to a reader... Blogger decided to have an epic meltdown on the Friday that the competition closed, so I had to extend the time to enter.

I drew the results Sunday night, and thanks to random.org, we have a winner.

Congratulations to Leimaycherry!!

I will email you this week for your address and ship you your delicious cookies post-haste.

Thanks for playing, guys and dolls. Stay tuned for more fun stuff :)

Noosa Food and Wine Festival

The Audi 2011 Noosa Food and Wine Festival was calling my name. After quite the restricted pregnancy diet (What? No gorgonzola? For nine months?) and a severe wine drought, I was more than ready to immerse myself in foodie heaven. Although I couldn't really wine it up much, just getting back into the scene was exciting. Veggie Dad and I packed up Veggie Baby and headed to Noosa in the most glorious sunshine I'd seen in a long time. We walked through the festival gate, grabbed a wine glass each, and walked smack into chef Matt Moran.

Whatever you do, don't tell him I'm vegetarian...

 I have been in the presence of movie stars, famous musicians, eminent heads of state and members of Australia's political famous. And not once have I ever asked anyone to be in a photo with me. I've never been that guy. But before I knew it, the words were out of my mouth and I my big ugly mug was grinning for the camera. Seems people that have a passion for food will get me to find my inner groupie. Who knew?

First up on my agenda was to hear Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and Matt Moran along with MasterChef Magazine editor-in-chief Trudi Jenkins speak on the MasterChef phenomenon.  They're excited about how popular the show is, and how it is driving Australians into the kitchen -  anyone from the stop-go man at roadworks baking rhubarb crumble souffle to kids that can temper their own chocolate. They are passionate about the show and what it represents.

One head was missing though... the head that had spent the better part of the night before getting its groove on at several Noosa nightclubs...

oh hai.

 Mr Preston gave the excuse he had to cook for 1000 people in the food critic's cooking challenge at noon, and was prepping... but I've had to turn up for something with a hangover before, and I recognise a good hungover increased water intake when I see it. But he jumped right in with the conversation and was equally as passionate about what MasterChef has brought to cooking in Australia.

Passionate, I tells ya.

I was one of the lucky few that got to ask the panel a question, and I asked if it was becoming more and more difficult to create harder challenges for the contestants, given that they spend a lot of the lead-up to the show honing their kitchen skills. Gary joked that's why they brought in Matt Moran this season, and said he's still yet to have a cooking challenge where he has to hang out of a helicopter. I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

Besides the Queensland Cheese Exhibition, of which I partook liberally, there wasn't a lot for me to eat. Chefs love their meat, and it was the integral part of every dish on offer. So I turned to the wines. With particular attention paid to organic and preservative-free, just to see if they stacked up with more traditional winemaking methods.

They did.

Down the hatch!

 I took a good look around the gourmet kitchen and homewares expo, and poked my nose into Maggie's Farm Shop, where Maggie Beer and her daughter Saskia (whom I spied spending a quiet moment with a friend near Hastings Street on my way out) had plenty of gourmet food products to try. It was one of the more packed stalls.

There was celebrity chef cooking demonstrations all day, which were quite well-attended, and plenty of wine masterclasses. Unfortunately I didn't have a great deal of time to spend there, and with the world's biggest pram I didn't get to indulge in everything I would have liked to have seen and done.

But the blue cheese thing? Oh I indulged. And I'll be back next year.

What would YOU have asked the MasterChef judges?

A Veggie Mama Giveaway

Veggie Mama is one year old!

No, not that Veggie Mama. Although it was my birthday recently.

While I was in the hospital welcoming this little poppet:

My little ole blog had its first birthday. It may never forgive me for not heralding this momentous occasion, and will forever be the sullen teenager that says "yeah? well remember that time you forgot my birthday?" and I will have to soothe it with an endless stream of cash from my purse and promises to lend them the car.

Given that the best part about birthdays is the food and the presents, I've decided to combine the two, and give away to one lucky reader a box of cookies, baked by me, as a birthday present.

"Oh... cookies?" you say? "Not an iPad or KitchenAid mixer like the Pioneer Woman?"

Yes, cookies. And I will bake them myself. When, as a new mother, I should be putting my feet up somewhere. Or ASLEEP.

For your chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment telling me which you'd prefer - raspberry and white chocolate, or double chocolate chip!

The contest will end at 6pm this Friday, May 13. Unfortunately this is only open to Australian residents, for customs reasons... but I'll think of something for my international lovelies soon!

The winner will be chosen by Random.org and will be notified by email. If you don't get back to me, I WILL EAT YOUR COOKIES!

Happee Birthday Veggie Mama :)

Cinco de Mayo - Veggie fajitas and homemade salsa

First of all, whenever anybody says salsa, in my head I'm repeating the above scene... where George and Jerry are discussing salsa being the number one condiment in America... and Jerry saying "It's because people like to say 'salsa'!"... and I can't say salsa properly again after that.

It's easy for me to see how it did become the most popular condiment - I like a sauce to be spicy and flavoursome. I'm not about plain old ketchup, I'm the one sneaking back to the kitchen to doctor it up somehow. Salsa fits my bill perfectly. And all you have to do is throw things into a blender and voila! spicy salsa.

Mexican food is one of the easiest and best cuisines to eat if you're vegetarian, going veg, or just wanting to eat less meat. It's so adaptable, and its big, bold flavours satisfy any kind of appetite. I usually go for a cheesy enchilada or bean burrito, or even a crispy taco on Mexican nights around here, but it's hard to go past a spicy veggie-filled soft wrap with a dollop of sour cream and some SALSA!! on the side. Yum!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Fajita ingredients:
2 capsicums, one red, one green, sliced
1 onion, sliced
7-8 portobello or field mushrooms, sliced
juice of 2 limes or 1 lemon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
2 chillies, sliced
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
tortillas, coriander and sour cream to serve.

Method:

1. Put the capsicum, onion, mushrooms, garlic and chillies in a bowl. Add lemon, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper and marinate at least 1 hour.

2. Fry over medium-high heat until veggies are soft and browned, about 8-10 minutes.

3. Serve on tortillas with optional extras.

Salsa ingredients
1 400g can diced tomatoes
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
1-2 red chillies or jalapenos, roughly chopped
juice of a lime
small handful chopped coriander
pinch of sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. Pulse until desired consistency.

Finish Quantum and the Chocolate Challenge

I'm a teensy bit competitive. Not the sweaty, athletic type, but if there's a challenge going on, I don't like to lose. You're looking at a crossword competition champion and inaugural ice-block-eating winner. Oh! and once I had to suck jelly through a straw with my hands behind my back. I won that too.

And if you don't like to lose, don't play me in Trivial Pursuit...

If you want to see my dreams die before your very eyes, play me in Scrabble (yes, I completely suck even though I'm a professional writer... go figure), Monopoly, checkers, chess (I have a deep-seated love-hate relationship with it) or poker. That being said, I'm a mean Boggler and Battleship-er.

When someone throws down a challenge, I more than likely accept. I want to triumph, dammit! I was encouraged by the good people at Finish to bake an uber-ooey-gooey caramel chocolate brownie and to wash the pan with their new Finish Quantum tablets in my dishwasher. I was skeptical. I mean, tons of the caramel from the eggs had melted through the brownie and was now stuck fast on the bottom of the pan. I couldn't even scrape it off. 

Well we couldn't have it going to waste now, could we?

Yet, the next morning both Veggie Dad and I were genuinely surprised to see a very clean pan indeed. 

Impressive...

Sure there was a little left over, but it brushed right off, and did I mention the baked-on caramel?

This killed me.

The fun part is that we got to eat these brownies. You can too! And if you make a ridiculous mess like I did, then email [email protected] for your very own free sample of Finish Quantum. #winning!

Delicious easter egg brownies are constructed thusly:

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter

200g dark chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup plain flour, sifted

2 x 110g packets caramel easter eggs

cocoa powder, to serve

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Coat the baking dish in non-stick spray.

2. Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water on low heat. Don't let the bowl touch the water.

3. Cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes until smooth and combined. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar thoroughly until you have a silky consistency. Set aside for 5 minutes.

4. Stir in beaten eggs and flour. Pour a mixture into a prepared dish. Spread top evenly with a spatula. Press chocolate eggs into brownie mixture.

*Disclaimer: I was given this challenge and all the necessary items as a gift from Finish. I wasn't obliged to write anything at all. However, did I mention the baked-on caramel?!

Audrey Gordon and the Roast Vegetable Salad

I love comedy. I love books. It is my personal belief that there's nothing better than when the two are combined.

I was made aware recently that the hilarious team from Working Dog Productions had taken a potshot at the foodie culture by creating their own celebrity chef, and in turn had her create a cookbook. Now I like my wit drier than a desert, and when a satirical publication is passed off as legitimate, (hello The Onion), I am especially impressed. Particularly if it leaves people a little unsure if they're being had or not.

Working Dog have amused me over the years with The Castle, The Panel, and Thank God You're Here, and are made up of members of the D-Generation and The Late Show (seriously funny Australian comedy that I still watch today), and their creation of Audrey Gordon does not disappoint. As she moves to Tuscany to immerse herself in the culture, customs and cuisine, Audrey's impertinent attitude (she was voted Britain's Sternest Chef for three consecutive years) makes for compelling reading. There was a joke on just about every page that I found genuinely funny ("The Piazza Pallazzio has genuine period charm. Each of its 66 rooms boasts antiques such as Etruscan rugs, four-poster beds, vases and dial-up internet"), and I am an exacting comedy consumer. I'm a tough nut to crack.

Complete with recipes I want to try marked...

All the recipes included in the book are real, and actually quite delicious. I'm told the book is "a practical guide that will help you carry off everything from a lazy Sunday brunch with friends to a formal sit-down banquet for 300 lactose-intolerant, diabetic vegans with severe peanut allergies". You can't get more helpful than that.

I decided to put the roast vegetable salad to the test - something easy I could throw together, but still be delicious. Given that it is getting into cooler weather too, a salad sort of needs to be a bit hotter and heartier to go with your meals This will do the trick!

Ingredients:
10 new potatoes, halved
2 white onions, sliced
2 large carrots, cut large chunks
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 zucchini, thickly sliced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
olive oil
salt
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
50g pine nuts
150g flat-leaf parsley, washed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Place the potatoes in a saucepan of water and bring to the boil for 5 minutes until they're just turning soft, but not cooked.

3. Put the potatoes in a large bowl along with the sliced onion, carrot, garlic cloves and zucchini. Sprinkle with rosemary, thyme and a good slug of olive oil. Toss to coat the vegetables with the olive oil then season with salt to taste.

3. Spread the vegetables on an oiled baking tray and bake about 35 minutes until they begin to brown around the edges.

4. Stir in the cherry tomatoes, and continue cooking for a further 15 minutes.

6. Toss the roast vegetables in a large bowl with the pine nuts, parsley and balsamic vinegar.


Audrey's Tip:
Heat is the very essence of cooking. It's what causes individual ingredients to lower their barriers and intermingle with each other, eventually yielding to the moment, rather like vodka at a dinner party. That said, it's imperative that you use no more and no less heat than is needed. The last thing one wants is to startle the garlic or flummox your onion.