Pork wontons

AKA Lucy's pork wintons

I took a total gamble with this recipe. Basically, I started an epic search for wonton wrappers, and after consulting the internet world, realised I must have been looking in the wrong place!

Turns out, they keep wonton wrappers in the fridge section of supermarkets, not the freezer.

Anyway, I stumbled across them yesterday on my boring old food shopping expedition and got all excited and bought some pork mince to go with it and figured I would just wing it for the rest of the recipe. Great idea. This is what I did and it was totally delicious. Please keep in mind that this made like 30 wontons (hello lunchtime leftovers!) and I still have some of the pork mixture left so unless you’re feeding a lot of people, I would halve this recipe and just make about 15. 

500g pork mince

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 egg

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoon crushed ginger

1 teaspoon chilli paste

4 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon corn flour

Couple of drops of sesame oil

(You could also add some fresh coriander, I just didn’t have any)

Note – I used the square wonton wrappers, so I just ended up making little triangle shapes. If you have round wrappers, you can make little semi-circles – either way it’s just a matter of folding them in half 

Combine it all well in a big bowl.

Start making the wontons one at a time.

Take one wrapper out, place it on the surface and put about 1 tablespoon of mixture in the middle.

Fold it in half, wetting two edges and firmly pressing the sides together.

Lay them on a tray or plate, not touching each others as they might stick.

Also, I cooked these two ways – half steamed, half in a frypan.

For the steamer, get the water boiling in the steamer, being careful to spray-oil the surface before popping the wontons on there. They take about 10 minutes to cook.

For the frypan, I don’t like using oil so I just used some spray oil in our non-stick pan and it worked ok. I just turned it three times so it was all crispy on all sides. Mmmm. 

Dipping sauce to serve:

Combine 3 tablespoons of dark soy sauce with 1 crushed garlic clove and 1 teaspoon crushed ginger.

Hot cross buns

2 teaspoons yeast

1 ¼ cup warmed milk

¼ cup caster sugar

4 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon ground ginger, nutmeg, cardamom (not essentials but just adds a bit more spice)

60 butter, melted

2 eggs

1 ½ cups dried fruit

In a bowl, whisk together the yeast, milk and sugar.

Cover and put in a warm, draught-free place for about 10 minutes until the yeast has frothed. If it hasn’t foamed at all, the yeast is dead and you’ll have to start again.

In a big bowl, mix together the flour and spices. Add in the yeast mixture, eggs and butter and combine well.

If it’s too sticky, you’ll need to add more flour as you go.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead well, until the dough is a nice smooth consistency.

Put into a lightly greased bowl and cover, place in a draught-free place for about 45 minutes.

Mix in the dried fruit – there is no simple way to do this, but just slowly knead it through in a few batches until it’s all combined in.

Lightly grease a baking tray, and line with baking paper.

Divide the mixture into about 18 pieces, rolling each into a ball. It might make slightly more or less depending on how big you want them.

Line the balls up in the baking tray, placing them next to each other but not mushing them together. When they cook, they’re going to rise but they don’t expand too much, and they will break away from each other easily when cooked.

If there is a big gap of unfilled space on the tray, sometimes I put some rolled up foil in next to the end row just to hold it in place, but this isn’t entirely necessary.

Leave the buns for about 10 minutes in the tray.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Please note there are a lot of recipes for making the white crosses – I am terrible, or unlucky, at this part, I don’t know what I have been doing wrong. So far the best way seems to be combining ¼ cup self-raising flour with a couple of teaspoons of water to make a thick paste, and then piping the crosses onto the buns in the rows. 

Pipe the crosses onto the buns just before they go into the oven.

Cook the hot cross buns for about half an hour, or until golden brown. 

About five minutes before they’re due to come out of the oven, make a quick glaze.

I mix about 2 teaspoons of gelatine with 4 tablespoons of sugar and a few teaspoons of hot water, bring it to the boil.

You could also use an apricot jam, it is just as good as a glaze, it just depends on what you have available to use. You just want to brush it over the buns as soon as they come out of the oven.

Leave them to cool in the tray for about 10 minutes before popping them onto a wire rack.

Stir fried delights

Stir fries are, quite simply, awesome. You can use just about any vegetables or protein and eat it with any kind of carb or no carb at all. My favourite kind of dinner is one that’s quick, fresh, filling and tasty. I also like to know I can have it for lunch the next day, which makes this one even better cos you just cook a bit of rice or noodle to go with it, and it’s all good to go.

This is a basic recipe for a stir fry dinner, keeping in mind that you can use just about vegetable that you want, these are just the ones I prefer.

2 eggs, scrambled with a bit of milk

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon chilli

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon fish sauce

4 tablespoons soy sauce

Protein – 1 chicken breast, 150 grams lean red eat, kangaroo, prawns

1 onion, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced or quartered

½ cup sliced red capsicum

1 cup broccoli

5 asparagus pieces

1 bunch bok choy (or other similar Chinese vegetable)

Choose your carb – rice, quinoa, noodles and get them prepared before you start cooking everything else. If you want this to be a fried rice, it’s best to cook the rice earlier and then cool it in the fridge before adding to the wok.

First, make the omelette which will be put on top of the end meal. Spray the wok with oil, get it nice and hot and make one big omelette, or two smaller ones, and leave to cool on a plate.

Then cook the protein. Slice it thinly and give it a quick fry in the wok, then set aside.

Now for the veges. Spray a wok with a bit of spray oil. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and fry for a minute before adding the onion and carrot.

Keep stirring for two minutes, then add the broccoli, capsicum and mushrooms and the three sauces, as well as a couple of tablespoons of water if it gets a bit dry. Add your protein back into the wok, as well as any juices.

Cook for a couple of minutes before adding the bok choy and asparagus.

Cook for another minute or two.

Add in the pre-cooked noodles or rice and stir well to heat through.

        - Note: If you’re trying to avoid carbs, this is more than hearty on its own without rice or noodles.

Roll up the omelette/s and slice them. Decorate the finished stir fry with the egg.

Banana oat cupcakes

180g butter, softened

150g sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup milk

2 ½ cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon bi-carb

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon  

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 ½ cups oats or muesli

You could also add in dried fruit, desiccated coconut or even chocolate chips for a bit of a different flavou as well. Just pop them in at the end. 

This recipe makes about 25 medium to large sized cupcakes. 

Preheat oven to 190C. Place patty tins into muffin trays.

Beat together butter and sugar until it’s fluffy and slightly lighter in colour.

Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well between additions.

Mix the flour, bi-carb and cinnamon into one bowl, and beat this into the sugar-butter batter at intervals with the milk and vanilla.

Beat it all well. Remove beater.

Using a spoon, gently mix in the banana and oats until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake tins.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until risen and browned on the top.

I decorated mine with a simple vanilla butter creamfrosting. They also just taste good on their own, kind of like a muffin.

Chocolate zucchini cupcakes

125g butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

¾ cup milk

2 ½ cups self raising flour

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups grated zucchini

This made about 22 decent sized cupcakes. It could also make one big cake, just adjust the cooking time to about an hour and reduce the temperature to 180C.

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C.

Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add eggs one at a time until well combined. Continue beating in vanilla.

Mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon and salt in another bowl, and mix this into the butter-sugar bowl in three batches, alternating with the milk.

Using a large spoon, gently mix in the zucchini.

Spoon the mixture into the patty tins.

Cook for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.

Decorations:

I made a simple butter cream icing with cocoa and choclettes, but you could also just sift some icing sugar on the top for a lighter dessert. 

Butter cream frosting

185g butter, softened
2.5 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons water or milk

This can be flavoured with melted chocolate, cocoa, flavoured essences like mint or vanilla or simply coloured with food colouring. Be sure to add these additions at the end, not the start.

Boccincini, basil and tomato skewers

These little nuggets of deliciousness came out of an old “Women’s entertaining” cookbook, and they really are quite awesome. And easy, which makes them even better.

They look naughty and a little bit fancy but only take a couple of minutes to throw together, and can be as simple or complex as you like.

I opted for simple, as I was putting on a bit of a feast and just ran out of time to marinate the cheese, but if you have an hour spare to let it marinate, definitely give it a whirl.

This makes 6 short skewers (similar to the picture)

Ingredients:

9 cherry tomatoes, halved

4 boccincini balls, quartered

About 30 basil leaves

3 long wooden skewers, cut in half  (could also use toothpicks and just make shorter versions of these)

For the marinade

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh diced chives

1 tablespoon fresh diced parsley

A good crack of black pepper

Once the cheese is cut, coat them in the marinade for about an hour before putting on the skewers

Just thread everything onto the skewers in the order of tomato-basil-cheese-basil-tomato, and voila! They’re done.

So easy and really delicious.

Lamb koftas with yoghurt dipping sauce

This recipe makes about 10 reasonably big koftas, could always make smaller bite-sized meatballs.

Ingredients:

500g lamb mince

1 cup breadcrumbs

2 eggs

3 garlic cloves, crushed

½ onion, diced finely

2 teaspoons ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon cracked pepper

1 teaspoon chilli flakes (or chilli powder)

Mint – either 1 tablespoon dried mint flakes, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint or equivalent of the mint concentrate in tubes

Mix it all together in a big bowl, best done with your hands so really get into it.

Divide the mixture into 10 pieces, and roll each into a chunky log, flattened slightly.

These are best put on a tray and refrigerated for at least an hour prior to cooking to let it set better.

Cook in a frypan, the oven, on a grill or on the barbecue.

Yoghurt dipping sauce

½ cup plain greek yoghurt

½ Lebanese cucumber, grated and with the moisture squeezed out

3 tablespoons fresh mint, diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Good crack of pepper and pinch of salt

Mix it all together in a bowl, taste-testing to make sure the balance is right.

Banana and carrot cake

This is good. So good in fact I have gotten two marriage proposals out of this bad boy. On the same day. It's really a pity Julia Gillard hasn't allowed same-sex marriages yet, otherwise I'd be in a bit of a conundrum.

Cake ingredients:

125g butter

½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract  

3 small bananas, very ripe, mashed

2 carrots, grated

2 cups self-raising flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda

3/4 cup milk

½ teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

(could also mix through some walnuts or pecans, or even blueberries at the end too)

Cream cheese frosting

125g cream cheese, at room temperature

50g butter, at room temperature

2 ½ cups icing sugar

2 teaspoons milk or water

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

(it doesn’t need the lemon rind, it just adds a bit of flavour but it’s more than delicious without it.)

Method:

Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until pale and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the carrots and banana, mixing in well with a spoon.

Mix the flour, bicarb and spices together in one bowl, and using a metal spoon, mix into the batter mixture alternately with the milk. You want to mix it so that it is just combined, don’t overwork the batter.

Spoon the mixture into a cake tin, about 25cm round, lined with baking paper.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.

Allow to cool in tin for five minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat all the ingredients (except the lemon rind, if you’re using any) together with an electric mixture. You’ll need to cream cheese and butter to be quite soft (though not melted) so that it has a smooth consistency. Beat until thick.

Spread onto the cake, and the sides if you wish.

Decoration ideas?

Shredded or desiccated coconut, walnuts, pecans, sliced bananas, passionfruit pulp, berries etc.

I also cut my cake in half lengthways so that I could put icing in the middle because it’s so delicious.

Muesli bars

Just about anything can go in this, just need the oats and enough binding stuff like honey, egg etc to keep it all together

2 cups oats

1 cup dried fruit – sultanas, craisins, blueberries etc

¼ cup seeds – sunflower, pumpkin, chia etc

1/2-1 cup nuts – any kind will work

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

¼ cup flour – or hazelnut or almond meal

1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg (not all necessary, just adds a nice fruity flavour)

Mix it all in a big bowl. Add more honey or oats depending on the consistency. You want it to be pretty chunk, not liquidy at all.

I prefer to make these in patty tins, so that I don’t have to slice them into bars and create more mess. It also means I’m less likely to eat more than one.

If you don’t have patty tins, spray a big baking tin with oil and line with baking paper and just put it all in there, flattening it down firmly.

Bake in a 180C oven for about 15 minutes, just to get it all stuck together.

Eat when they’re cold.

Done!

Bircher muesli

Makes 3 servings @ 370 calories each

I made a batch of this to last me for three breakfasts, just to make it all a bit easier. Basically , you need to soak the oats and dried fruit and nuts in the juice and milk, and then in the morning, add in the fresh fruit and yoghurt.

1 cup oats (I used instant oats)

½ cup apple juice

½ cup skim milk

1 tablespoon seeds – sunflower, pumpkin etc

12 walnuts or a tablespoon slithered almonds

2 tablespoons dried blueberries or cranberries

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon mixed spice

In each bowl:

1 apple, grated or finely chopped

(Could substitute for other fruit – sliced banana, chopped fresh pineapple, pear etc)

1 tablespoon natural, low fat yoghurt

 

Method: Combine oats, apple juice, milk, nuts, seeds and dried fruits in a bowl and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, add in the fresh fruit and yoghurt and combine well.

Drizzle with some honey if you want a bit more sweetness.

Ginger pecan cake

This is one of the recipes I have stolen off my mum. She makes this one all the time, and it's one of the few cake recipes that she has made successfully several times (sorry mum!) 

You could also use walnuts or even almonds in this one, or a mix of nuts if you're not that keen on the pecans.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups self raising flour

1 tsp bicarb soda

1 tblspn ground ginger

1 tspn mixed spice

100 unsalted butter, chopped

1 large apple, cored and diced

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup treacle/maple syrup

1 cup milk

1 egg

¾ cup pecan, chopped

Glaze:

¼ cup water

2 tblspns caster sugar

½ tspn powdered gelatine

Method:

Grease a 22cm round cake tin, line with baking paper

In a food processor, place flour, bicarb soda, ginger, mixed spice and butter. Process until it resembles a fine crumble. Stir in the apple.

Ina  saucepan, mix the sugar, treacle and milk. Stir over a medium heat until warm and mixed through, but don’t bring to the boil.

Mix in the flour mixture, followed by the egg and half of the nuts.

Pout it all into a prepared pan, then sprinkle with the remaining nuts.

Bake in a 180C oven for about 50 minutes to an hour, or until cooked when tested.

For the glaze, mix the ingredients in a small saucepan, mixing well until the gelatine is dissolved.

Brush over cake.Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Apricot chicken

Sometimes, you just can’t be f**ked cooking anything exciting. This is one of my go-to recipes for when I’m just not inspired to cook but still want something substantial, and home cooked.

Ingredients:

About 8 pieces of chicken (drumsticks, wings breasts on the bone)

1 big can of apricot nectar

1 packet French onion mix

½ cup milk

Optional extras: (depending on what you’ve got in the cupboard)

Onion, chopped chunky

A couple of carrots, diced

Potatoes, diced

To serve -  steam some rice, mashed potatoes or just some bread or rolls.

Dissolve the French onion soup mix in the nectar, mixing it up well.

Chuck everything in a big casserole container, with a lid if possible, otherwise with some foil on top.

Put in the oven for about an hour, taking it our once or twice to stir it all together, then take off the lid/foil and continue cooking for another half hour or so.

Take it out of the oven and leave it to sit for about 10 minutes, and the sauce will thicken. 

 Meanwhile, prepare whatever sides you want – steamed rice, vegetables, bread rolls – whatever you’ve got.