Meet Herman

A few weeks ago, our church hosted an event featuring Kate Bracks - the MasterChef winner of 2011.

Aside from a cooking demonstration of a lovely 3 course meal, Kate also shared with us why she believes in God.  I was captivated by her, she has such an engaging manner and such a lovely lady. She had time for every person who wanted to have a natter. Do check out Kate's website.

As part of the goodie bag that we received with that evening, was a recipe card and an introduction to Herman - a sourdough starter.

I'd never met Herman till now, but in the last few weeks , Herman the German(as he is affectionately known) Friendship Cake has become a dear friend who's found a permanent spot in my kitchen. I've made the starter twice now.

So what is Herman the German Friendship cake. The whole premise around Herman is that you make his starter and  share it with others; or share the love as some would say. The others make it and share it with their friends and so on it continues to multiply.

What I love about this is that you make the starter and give it away. And to do that requires you to actually see a friend. It's so easy these days to text or instant message, we don't actually make the effort to see them. This gives us a reason to drop in, and cultivate our relationships in person. 

When did you last cultivate a friendship? I seldom do it, but when I do make the effort, organise a time to meet and actually execute, I find myself wishing that I had done it sooner. I say go share the love!

This is what Herman the German looked like when cooked. Word of warning though - Herman is deliciously moorish! 

Here's the recipe for Herman's starter, you can also find a pdf from the Herman website.

Starter

Day 1   Put me in a large mixing bowl and cover loosely with a tea towel.
Day 2   Stir well
Day 3   Stir well
Day 4   Herman is hungry. Add 1 cup each of plain flour, sugar and milk. Stir 
           well
Day 5   Stir well
Day 6   Stir well
Day 7   Stir well
Day 8   Stir well
Day 9   Add the same as Day 4 and stir well. Divide into 4 equal portions and 

           give away with a copy of the instructions. Keep one portion.

Day 10 Now you are ready to make the cake

To make the cake

1 cup sugar

1 cup of flour

1/2 tsp sals

2/3 cup cooking oil

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 apples cut into chunks

1 cup raisins

2 heaped tsp cinnamon

2 heaped tsp baking powder

Topping

1⁄4 cup brown sugar

1⁄4 cup melted butter

Mix everything together and put into a large greased baking tin. 

Sprinkle with a quarter of a cup of brown sugar and a quarter of a cup of melted butter. 

Bake for 45 minutes at 170‐180C. 

Test the middle with a clean knife; you may need to cover in tin foil and bake for a further 20 minutes to make sure your Herman is cooked properly in the middle.

Linking up with Jess today on I blog on Tuesdays.

Test Kitchen Thursday - Sweet potato and zucchini risotto

I'm loving this process of trying out recipes I have not used before. If you are like me, i have some usual go to recipes, but that's becoming seemingly boring if you know what i mean.

Given my new sense of fiscal responsibility and not wasting anything i have in the fridge, I had some zucchini  and some chicken stock(left over from a roast), and i did really want a carb loaded meal - pasta or risotto.

The taste website came to my rescue - Sweet potato and zucchini risotto.
Perfect - LM likes sweet potato, and the zucchini would get used.

Recipe

• Medium sweet potato cut in cubes
• an onion chopped
• Olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 cup of arborio rice
• 1L chicken stock
• 3 small zucchinis - grated (see note)
• 1 cup of grated parmesan 
• 
  

Preheat the oven 200°C and roast the sweet potato in the oven - took me about 35mins

Heat stock in a saucepan and keep at a gentle simmer once boiled.

Heat oil on a medium heat in another saucepan, add garlic and onions. Cook until soft.

Add rice and stir for a couple of mins until rice well coated 

Add ladelful of stock to the rice at a time, stir the rice until the liquid is absorbed. Add the remainng stock until all used. Cook the rice until grains are tender. 

Add the zucchini and parmesan to the rice. Season.  Stir until soft.
Add the cooked sweet potato, stir and serve

I also had some leftover roasted chicken, so i just threw that in for protein.

The official recipe from Taste - i omitted the white wine, as we did't have any.

Note: with the grated zucchini - i put it in some paper towelling to squeeze out the extra liquid from it. 

Verdict:

a very colourful risotto, the combination of the zucchini and sweet potato worked really well, the family liked it.  A thumbs up!

Test Kitchen Thursday - Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

The cousins were coming over to visit and play, plus see the renovated house, so I told Little Man that we would bake something for morning tea.

To which an excited reply came: "chocolate cake!' 

I don't have a regular chocolate cake recipe - i have an ultra good brownie recipe so I searched through my cookbook collection looking for an easy chocolate cake - and did i find one.. Nope! So off to google i went, and eventually settled on this an old fashioned chocolate cake by Nigella Lawson.

And so Little Man and I created the cake together. I measured out all the ingredient and he poured and mixed to his heart's content.

Recipe

• 200 grams plain flour
• 200 grams caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 40 grams best-quality cocoa powder
• 175 grams soft unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 150 ml sour cream

Preheat the oven 180°C and line and line cake tin.

Mix the flour, sugar and leavening agents in a large bowl and beat in the soft butter until you have a combined and creamy mixture. Now whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla and eggs and beat this into your bowl of mixture. the other way is to throw everything into food processor and mix it together.

Pour into a cake tin. I used a square 20" tin .

Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, approx 35 minutes.

Remove the cake to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out .

Ice cake when cooled. i didn't use nigella's icing recipe to ice the cake - i just threw some dark chocolate buds and some thickened cream to make the 'icing'

Nigella's official recipe is found here - Nigella's recipe


Verdict:

This is an awesome cake, really easy to make and delicious!  I made it with my almost 3 year old  so I'm adding this to my recipe book. Thanks Nigella!

Have you ever tried this recipe? Did it work for you? Or do you have a favourite chocolate cake recipe that you'd recommend i try?

Test Kitchen Thursday - Jool's Favourite Beef Stew

Given that I have currently more time on my hands - i've decided to undertake a new project - Test Kitchen Thursday. The plan is to test out a recipe every Thursday. 

M thinks this is grand - he gets to eat! and I get to cook - something i enjoy doing.

So to kick off, I tried out this recipe  Jool's Favorite Beef Stew by Jamie Oliver I had to make some slight changes as i didn't have all the ingredients.

Little Man was happy to polish this off for dinner. M was happy too! It was very tasty. Big Tick for me!

Have you ever tried this recipe - a hit or a miss for you?
If you have a great recipe you think I should try - let me know. I'm happy to give it a go! Just leave me the link in the comments!

Ingredients

olive oil
1 onion chopped
800g Gravy beef
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
flour, to dust
a handful of sage leaves
4 carrots, cut into 3 or 4 large pieces
500g small potatoes, halved
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/3 bottle red wine
250ml beef stock
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
a handful of rosemary leaves, chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Note:  Jamie's recipe had 1/2 a butternut squash, turnips and jerusalem artichokes, all which i didn't have so i omitted them.

Preheat oven to 160ºC.

Heat oil in a casserole dish. Add onion and sage leaves and fry on the stove top until softened.

Toss the meat in a little flour and add to brown in the casserole dish.

Add to the pan with all the vegetables, tomato paste, wine and stock, and gently stir together. Season to taste.

Bring to the boil, place lid and transfer to cook in the oven until the meat is tender. It took me about 1hr 20 using a French oven.

Mix the lemon zest, chopped rosemary and garlic together, sprinkle prior to serving.

I served this with polenta.