Sugar free bliss balls

Attempted (processed-sugar free) bliss balls last night. Vague recipe:

- 100g almonds raw, unsalted

- 70g walnuts

Blitz in food processor, set aside.

- 7 dates, 11 dried figs

Blitz in food processor.

Return nuts to food processor with fruit.

Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a handful of coconut, 1 teaspoon agave nectar (will try honey some time), 2 teaspoons coconut oil, a tablespoon cacao powder.

Blitz, adding a bit of water if required, til combined, starts turning into a big ball.

Form into small balls, roll in chia seeds, place in small patty cases, in small muffin trays, refrigerate or freeze.

Will try some different ingreds, including orange zest, ginger, other nuts and fruit.

It's not chocolate, but could be the next best thing! Please feel free to share your recipes with this amateur! Xx

Death by chocolate cake

My team had a cracking month in January, they each hit some big personal goals, and also made huge in-roads on the work front... So we celebrated with cake! 

Death by chocolate cake - recipe from CacaoWeb - http://www.cacaoweb.net/deathbychocolate.html

* note for next time- mix the sour cream into the chocolate to melt it, before adding to cake batter- this will help reduce chance of s/c lumps in the cooked cake. 

Small slices only!

I made this in tins approx 8inches x 4.... My first 4 layer cake ever!

Keeping this recipe!

My favourite salad (this week at least)

I want to tell you about my current favourite work lunch;

It's vegan, glutard safe, and ... smashing!

This salad is one of those depends-on-what's-in-the-fridge arrangements... But I have some staple faves, along these lines:

Roasted pumpkin:

Fresh pumpkin (butternut, jap, kent, whatever you have)

Drizzle in oil of voice - I use olive

Season with spices of choice, I suggest cinnamon and cumin as essentials, sometimes I add cayene or paprika too.

Roast in oven at 180-200C until cooked and preferably a little caramelised ;)

[use any roasted veg that you like here, sweet spud, spud, capsicum, carrot, beetroot... Fill your boots]

I make a big batch of pumpkin a few days ahead and refrigerate until required (up to 3 days usually ok).

Make a batch of quinoa ("keen wah", or "kin-o-a" depending on which side of the train line you're from. Quinoa is some kind of ancient grain. Super food! 

Follow packet instructions. (Boil it!) refrigerate til required.

Assemble the salad. Here are my favorite ingreds:

- quinoa

- pumpkin

- spinach leaves

- shredded purple cabbage

- mint leaves chopped 

- coriander leaves and stalks chopped

- spring onion finely sliced

- hazelnuts - chopped

- grated carrot

- rocquette leaves chopped

- baby tomatoes

Dressing:

- pumpkin seed oil (or any other yummy oil like avocado, olive)

- citrus juice (I like a combo of lemon and lime

When taking this for work, I dress the salad in the morning, but toss just before eating at lunch time.

So freaking tasty, healthy. Be good to your body and try this salad. 

Ups to Mrs Jac Jac for introducing me to the concept via her fab roast sweet potato and quinoa salad on New Years!

Salted caramel icecream - oh yeah!

I'm excited. I remembered that I own an icecream machine!

Next stop: Salted caramel icecream... It might be true love.

Recipe courtesy of the Kitchen Paper http://www.thekitchenpaper.com/salted-caramel-ice-cream/ for those playing at home. 

I used raw sugar, Maldon salt, thickened cream, vanilla extract.

Caramel

(sugar + heat + cream)

Eggs x 3

Cream, whole fat milk, sugar - heat

Strain milk into caramel 

Mix it, baby!

Chill the custard for a few hours, stirring regularly 

Then bung it in the icecream machine (don't buy one, borrow mine)

And now we churn!

The finished product- delicious

Lesson learnt: I over cooked the sugar at the start so ended up with a slightly burnt sugar flavour. Not terrible (I kind of liked the bitterness against the creamy sweetness). Next time I'll use white sugar so I can see more easily when it is starting to brown. 

 

You're welcome. 

X

Goat curry! Y U M

New apron (makes all the difference)

Heat 4 tablespoons sunflower oil

Add cinnamon stick? 5 bruised cardamom pods, 5 cloves and 2 bay leaves. Cook 30 secs.

Add goat. We used 4 pieces of goat scrag/neck but this recipe would work with lamb. The original recipe used lamb chopped up into even sized pieces but we just bung these in whole and hoped for the best. 

Cook for about five mins until starting to brown and add one brown onion, finely chopped along with about 2 tablespoons of garlic and ginger purée (I whazzed up about 5 garlic cloves and 2 thumb sized pieces of ginger in the food processor).

Cook for a few mins but don't let the garlic burn.

Add a good tablespoon of tomato paste, along with a teaspoon each of turmeric, coriander seeds (ground) and ground cumin. Stir and cook a couple of mins.

Mix up 125g natural yoghurt with a tablespoon of corn flour and a good teaspoon of chilli powder.

Add to the curry and stir. Add about half a litre of water - enough to cover the meat. Lid on, cook til tender. That took about 4 hours here. Remove lid and reduce to desired consistency. Pull meat from bones. 

Serve with quinoa, rice, naan, choose your own adventure!

Top with mint, coriander, yoghurt... 

Watch out for pesky cardamom pods and small bones.