Sunday, January 31, 2010

Sunday: part deux

Following on from this morning's post, Mr Kitty and I went to Rhodes Phoenix for some Yum Cha goodness. We had vegetarian dumplings, steamed chinese veges with oyster sauce, glutinous rice rolls with pork and TWO serves of pork buns. Because I love them so much.

Then off to Ikea where I bought a whisk, some coat hangers, some jam for Mr Kitty and a toilet brush. My life is that exciting.

We also saw Invictus - which I have to say I enjoyed, but take Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon out and it's a made for TV movie. Sorry Clint Eastwood. I liked it but it was a tad hokey for me.

Now That I am back at home I can post the recipes I made yesterday:

Apple, cranberry and almond loaf



50 g rolled oats
300 ml Milk
240 g Self Raising Flour you can use wholemeal
1 teaspoon Baking powder
125 g Craisins or dried cranberries (the original recipe calls for dried cherries but I couldn't find any so substituted these and they were very good)
50 g diced dried apple
3 tablespoons apple juice (preferably fresh)
75 g soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
3 tablespoons Honey
1 lightly beaten Egg
3 tablespoons roughly chopped Almonds plus 2 tablespoons extra

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Lightly grease and line a 1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) loaf tin with baking paper. Put the oats in a bowl, pour the milk over them and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Place diced apple into a bowl and pour over apple juice. Leave to soak for 30 minutes.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and stir in the rolled oats, dried fruit, sugar, cinnamon, honey, egg and almonds. Drain the juice from the apple and add the apple to the mix. Mix together well.

Spoon the mixture into the tin, level the top and sprinkle with the extra almonds. Bake the loaf for 45 minutes, or until it is golden brown on top and cooked through. Leave it to cool a little in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Toast and serve with ricotta and honey.

Recipe from Every Day by Bill Granger, published by Murdoch Books, Adapted by Miss Kitty.

Mr Kitty loved this loaf. It's not too sweet, not too healthy tasting. It's just right...

Choc-chip toffee drop cookies

250 g butter or margarine, softened
200 g caster sugar
180 g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
400g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
3/4 cup HEATH BITS 'O BRICKLE Toffee Bits and 1 cup semi-sweet mini chips. Or any choc chips you like.

Heat oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets or pans. Beat butter, caster sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt in large bowl until blended. Add eggs; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Stir in brickle and choc chips. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly. About 6 dozen softly textured cookies.

Recipe from Hershey's. Adapted and converted to Australian measurements by Miss Kitty. Hershey's toffee and mini chips are available from USA Foods in Melbourne.

I'm happy to post the lamb tagine recipe as well if people want it. It was actually very good. I will be making it again.

Kitty xxx

10 comments:

Elise said...

how funny! i was there today too. hope you didnt see me - i was like a broken woman trying to make it through and some how get back to my car with all the things i bought. twice in one weekend for me!

Miss Kitty-Cat said...

No - I didn't see you! We only went to the market hall area and the food part. That was enough! I don't think I can handle twice in one weekend!!

Anonymous said...

Those mini chips sound delicious! :) Have you tried Herhsey's Cinnamon Chips? I have a serious addiction to those :)

Miss Kitty-Cat said...

Yes!! I love cinnamon chips! They are amazing. Probably my favorite of all the chips. In fact I made your cinnadoodles for everyone in our office at Christmas and they were much admired. I have an order in for some more with a colleague who is in the US at the moment so I can make another batch!

The mini chips are very cute and not all that sweet so if you are a fan off that nice dark bitter chocolate you'll like them a lot.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the loaf recipe Kitty - I will definitely use it. I've got leftover craisins from an ice-cream plum pudding recipe and have been wondering what to do with them :)

Miss Kitty-Cat said...

It's great, Sass! Mr Kitty had a piece last night and if anything it was better than fresh from the oven. He said it had a stronger honey taste than he remembered. He loves it anyway!

Anonymous said...

Yummo! Yeah, I kind of figured that it might be nice sliced and then toasted with butter :)

Anonymous said...

So I tried it - fantastic. I didn't have enough cranberries so I added some currants. Everyone who has tried it has liked it. Also panicked when I realised I hadn't printed the recipe off to take home with me (we don't have a computer set up at home at the moment) but then realised that it was inspired by the Bill Granger recipe and I had the Everyday cook book on my shelf. Der! Anyway, thanks for reminding me to flick through my recipe books more often!

Miss Kitty-Cat said...

It's great isn't it! Just enough sweetness, but not too sweet! And it's great for breakfast whereas sometimes I find banana bread (cake, people, it's CAKE) can be too much first thing. Plus with the almonds and cranberries it'a almost a superfood. Nuff said.

Sydney Shop Girl said...

Oh. My. Goodness. You go to Rhodes for movie and meal dates too!?!?! And a side trip to Ikea!?!?! You must be my Rhodes twin blogger.

Good work, Miss Kitty!!