Sweet Potato & Ginger Soup
This soup is a great winter warmer on a cold day. The ginger gives it a real zing that warms you up on the inside. Another bonus is that it’s fat free and has a low salt content (depending on which stock you use).
Although this would qualify as vegan food I won’t advertise it as being a vegan recipe, it’s just simple food that tastes good.
Ingredients
2 Large Sweet Potatoes - peeled and cut into chunks
1 Large Onion - peeled and roughly chopped
2-3 inch piece of green ginger -roughly chopped
1 Litre Vegetable Stock
Method
Place all ingredients into a large saucepan, cover with water then bring to the boil.
Reduce to a simmer for one hour.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Using a stick mixer blend it together until you get a smooth consistency.
Reheat and serve.
Little Gordon
Everyone knows Gordon Ramsay as the foul mouthed belligerent chef that has risen to prominence on his in your face attitude.
A recruitment company has recruited “Little Gordon” to help promote their new site. Take a look and have a laugh.
Little Gordon - Part 1
Little Gordon - Part 2
There is a Part 3 coming soon, I’ll post it when I find it.
Working Mum’s Cooking Guide
This arrived in my inbox today. For the people that have never heard of Margaret Foulton she’s written a lot of cookbooks in Australia, and possibly even had her own TV show (before my time)
Margaret Fulton’s way: Stuff miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice-cream drips.
The Working Mum’s way: Just suck the ice-cream out of the bottom of the cone for Pete’s sake. You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it anyway!!Margaret Fulton’s: To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
Working Mum’s:Buy a packet of DEB and keep it in the cupboard for up to a year.Margaret Fulton’s:When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking tin, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won’t be any white mess on the outside of the cake.
Working Mum’s: Woolworths sell cakes. They even do decorated versions.Margaret Fulton’s: If you accidentally over salt a dish while it’s still cooking, drop in a potato slice.
Working Mum’s:If you over salt a dish while you are cooking, tough! Recite the working Mum’s motto: ‘I made it and you will eat it and I don’t care how bad it tastes!’Margaret Fulton’s:Wrap celery in aluminium foil when putting it in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
Working Mum’s: It could keep forever. Who eats it??Margaret Fulton’s:Cure for headaches. Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
Working Mum’s:Cure for headaches. Take a lime, cut it in half and drop it in a double vodka. Drink the vodka. You might still have the headache, but you won’t care!AND FINALLY, THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP.. Margaret Fulton’s: Freeze leftover wine into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.
Working Mum’s: Left over wine??? HELLO!!!????
Top 5 Recipes for April
Being a bit of a cook and a bit of a geek, I’ve had a look at my server stats and come up for the 5 most popular recipes on the site for April 2008.
- Seafood Risotto
- Thai Beef Massaman Curry
- Creamy Smoked Salmon and Fettucine (with asparagus) -don’t try this one yet, still needs some work.
- Simple Chilli Stir Fry Sauce
- Lamb Shank and Vegetable Soup
Now I should mention that these are the 5 recipes that viewed the most. If I was to pick a favourite it would be a toss up between the Seafood Risotto and the Thai Beef Massaman Curry
Easy Oysters Kilpatrick
The key to this very simple recipe is good ingredients and not overcooking. My oysters came off the water some time this morning, Can’t get much fresher than that unless your picking them off the rocks yourself.
There are probably dozens of different variations of oysters kilpatrick, but this is the simplest of them all and if follow my instructions you can’t go wrong.
Ingredients
1 Dozen oysters in the half shell
2 Rashes middle bacon
Worcestershire Sauce
Method
1. Dice the bacon and fry off it off in it’s own fat, you want it cooked but not crispy as it’s going to get some more cooking time under the grill.
2. Put the oysters on an oven proof tray, sprinkle evenly with bacon and add a small splash of the Worcestershire sauce to each oyster. No need to drown them as they have plenty of their own flavour.
3. Place under a medium to hot grill for 5-8 minutes, You’re not actually cooking the oysters, just warming them through.
4. Serve them up, being careful as the shells will be hot.
A lot of the recipes you’ll find tell you to place the raw bacon straight on top of the oyster and to grill them until the bacons crisp. I find this overcooks the oyster, something which can quite happily be eaten raw and only needs warming.
If you want the presentation to look a little more restaurant like, you can put a bed of rock salt on the serving plate so the oysters sit evenly. If you’re going to do this often then consider getting a bag of swimming pool salt from one of the discount stores. It will cost you almost as much as a kilo of salt from the supermarket. You can use it for other things as well like whole baked fish….. I will let you know when I try that one.
