My homemade hummus is the best ever. Why? Because I can adjust it to taste exactly how I like it. And so can you. Prefer a garlic hit? Add more garlic. Like the tang of lemon? Add some more. While cooking from scratch may not save you time, it does mean you can have perfect tasting food.

I’ve been making hummus as a protein / fibre snack lately to eat on whole wheat crackers or with vegetables. I’ve never been a huge fan, but lately I’ve fallen in love with it’s subtle flavour. The biggest challenge is to make the lot last more than one day. Makes just under 500g.

Method

1. Blend or process until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a little water to loosen it up or until you have your preferred consistency. Taste and season, adding more garlic, tahini or lemon juice as suits your tastes.

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Our Christmas lunch with family was a bring-a-dish affair, the best way to enjoy Christmas day without having all stress and financial burden of catering for everyone. As well as potato salad, I took the raspberry swirl cheesecake above. You can find the recipe for this cheesecake here at Taste.com.au.

I baked this on Christmas eve. Being a cheesecake novice, I was nervous that I had taken on too much. The stakes were high. I had promised cheesecake and had no back up plan if this didn’t turn out.

Well, after a few choice swear words and two hours baking rather than one, the cheesecake didn’t look nearly as good as the one pictured on the recipe, but it sure tasted sensational! (Oh yeah, even if I do say so myself ).

This cheesecake recipe has a lot of ingredients, including a whole tub of mascarpone, meaning that it’s not the cheapest dessert to make. To bring the cost down, I made the mascarpone, which is relatively easy to make, much cheaper than the store bought stuff and tastes just as good, if not better.

To compare: a tub of supermarket mascarpone is $23 per kilo. Making your own with fresh cream comes in at around $7.90 a kilo, a big saving.

The recipe below yields about 400g of mascarpone cheese.

Method

1. Heat cream over medium heat in a saucepan until it reaches 85°C (a candy thermometer is useful here). Make sure you stir regularly to ensure the cream doesn’t scold on the bottom. Many recipes suggest heating the cream in a double boiler over boiling water, but I found the cream would not reach the desired temperature (even after constant heating for 20 minutes) so ended up transferring the cream to a saucepan over direct heat and this worked fine.
2. Once the cream reaches 85°C, add the vinegar and continue stirring until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon (a couple of minutes). Remove from heat and let sit to cool. The cream won’t visibly curdle like it would if you were making ricotta, for example, although you may see some whey. It looks more like custard.
3. Line a sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth or muslin or a new, clean chux and place over a bowl. Pour the cream into the sieve and sit in the fridge over night (I placed a saucer over the top to cover, but don’t squeeze or press down on the cream). What you will have in the morning is a thick, creamy mascarpone – thick like cream cheese, but with a creamy rather than tangy taste. Yum!

If you’re wondering how to use mascarpone, it is traditionally used in tiramisu, but is nice served with fruit (fresh, poached or char-grilled), tossed through pasta (instead of ricotta, say), spread on toasted fruit bread, or can be used in pretty much anything that asks for cream – mascarpone gives the dish a decadent touch.

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1. homemade chips
2. Homemade Pizza Sauce
3. homemade sausage rolls

Homemade chips aren’t that much more difficult to cook than the frozen, store bought variety but the do taste light-years better and are much healthier.

Use an oil that heats well at high temperature like rice bran oil. We use macadamia nut oil and it gives the chips a lovely flavour.

You only want to use as much flour as will give the chips a very light coating. Too much will leave your chips floury once cooked. So add a little and toss, adding a little more if you need to. They don’t need to be completely coated in flour.

For homemade wedges, make exactly the same, but add some Cajun spice mix with the flour and paprika. Or for a different flavoured chip, add a little rosemary or garlic with the flour.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Pour a little oil onto a baking tray and heat the tray in the last few minutes of pre-heating the oven.
2. Leaving the skins on the potatoes, cut into wedges and par-boil for a couple of minutes (you want them under cooked). Drain and put back on the heat for a few seconds to let any excess moisture to steam off.
3. Sprinkle the flour, paprika, salt and pepper over the chips. Put the lid on and give the pot a good shake to coat the chips and rough them up a little.
4. Spread chips onto the hot tray and cook for 30 minutes, turning once half-way through. Nice served with sour cream and chilli sauce.

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I recently read a wonderful Australian book called Healthy Family, Happy Family. Not only does it have some great ideas for ensuring children are eating healthy meals, and tips for encouraging fussy eaters, it also has many excellent recipes (like mango French toast, strawberry, honey muffins and parsley and cashew pesto). The salad dressing below (the best I’ve ever tasted) is from the book. The recipe makes a large batch, but keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks, if it lasts that long.

Method

1. Add all ingredients to a screw top jar and shake until combined. Leave on the bench for a few minutes after refrigeration and before serving to let the oil liquefy again at room temperature. Shake just before serving.

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Today is Australia day and what better way to celebrate it than with some classic Australian food. We’ll be munching on some hot fresh damper bread along with our barbie (for our non-Aussie readers, not the doll but colloquial for barbeque).

Damper is the traditional soda bread of the Australian swagman who spent weeks at a time in remote areas with only basic rations. It uses baking soda as a leavening agent rather than yeast and was cooked in the ashes of the camp fire. Damper is a true frugal bread.

‘Cocky’s joy’ refers to golden syrup which is also traditionally eat with damper (and tastes great, by the way). On brownie camp, we made damper and wrapped it around a stick before cooking it over an open fire. The hole left when the stick was removed was filled with butter and golden syrup. This beats fine dining any day!

To Australian readers: Happy Australia Day! I hope your day is relaxing and enjoyable.

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Photo by Michael Newman

A simple white sauce can form the basis of many meals from macaroni and cheese and lasagne to chicken pie as well as just being a sauce for meat or fish.

White sauce is quick and easy to make – no need for sauce in a packet, which isn’t very nice anyway. White sauce is a good way to use up leftover vegetables and meat that are sitting in the fridge. Rather than throwing out leftovers, or those vegetables that don’t get used before next week’s shop, combine them with white sauce. Add leftover cooked meat or tuna if you have it and cover with a piece of puff pastry for a pie to feed a whole family. Or mix in some rice or pasta, top with cheese for a moray bake.

Below is a recipe to make a basic white sauce as well as suggestions for use and flavour variations.

To make about a cup of basic white sauce:

Method

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat
2. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes to cook out the raw flour taste
3. Add the cold milk gradually, stirring continually as you do to avoid lumps. Continue to stir over a medium heat until sauce has thickened.
4. Season to taste (white pepper works better than black; add a pinch of nutmeg if you wish) and add flavourings as desired (ideas below)

Ideas for using the white sauces:

• To pour over meat or vegetables
• For lasagne or moussaka
• As a base for cream soup, for soufflés or croquettes
• As a pasta sauce (ie. Add some cooked mushrooms and bacon, or steamed or roasted vegetables, or some cooked chicken, or some cheese and herbs)
• Make a thick white sauce and add mushrooms and chicken for a crepe filling; or try a combination of vegetables, herbs and meat such as chicken and asparagus, sundried tomato and tuna.
• As a Mornay base
• As a pie filling
• As a vegetable gratin
• As macaroni and cheese

Variations on the basic white sauce include:

• For Velouté sauce substitute the milk for chicken, vegetable or fish stock
• For a traditional Béchamel sauce infuse milk by first heating it with a slice of onion, 1 bay leaf and a few peppercorns. Leave to sit for about 20 minutes before straining and adding to the butter and flour mix as for white sauce.
• Use soy milk or stock if you’re not into dairy
• Add cheese for cheese sauce. Add a little mustard for extra flavour
• For a different flavour, substitute part of the milk or stock with white wine
• Add cayenne pepper instead of nutmeg or try paprika.
• For mustard sauce add some mustard to taste.
• Add mushrooms for mushroom sauce. Good in the gravy or brown sauce.
• Add herbs for herb sauce, parsley sauce is a traditional variation to white sauce
• Or a combination of any of the above.

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A drizzle of good sauce can turn an ordinary meal into something special, without being expensive or difficult. The photo shows the aioli over tuna rissoles, giving them a touch of class.

For aioli, you can make your own mayonnaise from scratch or for a speedy alternative, use bottled mayonnaise. If you use bottled, use the best quality, whole egg mayonnaise that you can find and avoid the imitation stuff, the difference in taste is huge. Making mayonnaise is not difficult, but I usually just use bottled whole egg mayonnaise. Fresh chilli is best, dried chilli flakes will do if fresh isn’t available.

Makes about 1/2 cup

Method

1. For the mayonnaise, whisk egg yolk and mustard until creamy. (For regular mayonnaise, you would also add about 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice here too).
2. Add the oil 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously. As the mayonnaise thickens you can add the oil a little more quickly. Mayonnaise is supposed to be difficult, but it’s not if you take your time adding the oil. If you’re not sure, then err on the side of caution and add a little at a time, whisking well. Make it a little thicker as the lime will thin it out. Taste your mayonnaise and season. 
3. For the aioli, add the crushed garlic to the mayonnaise and stir well. Add more or less according to your preference. Add the chillies and lime, again adjusting to taste.

Serve cold.

Update:

I made this the other night with pureed fresh mango in it also. Yum!

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I took a roast pumpkin and feta salad dressed with a honey balsamic dressing to our family Christmas lunch. The dressing is probably one of the best that I’ve made (even if I do say so myself), and it got a lot of compliments.

As I’m not a fan of salads, so I take my salad making pretty seriously as I want to ensure that I actually enjoy it. A good dressing is vital to making a good salad.

I’ve tried to give quantities here, but making a salad dressing isn’t an exact science, so taste it and adjust it to how you like it. Years ago someone gave me the secret to making a great salad dressing: it takes a rich man to add the oil, a miser to add the vinegar, a wise man to season it, and a mad man to shake it. That’s the way to make a dressing – no need to measure: more oil, less vinegar or acid, season to taste and mix well!

Method

1. Mix the honey and Dijon in a jar until combined. Stir in the vinegar combining well. Add the oil and give it a good shake until well combined (or whisk it all in a bowl). Taste and adjust to suit.
2. You may want to make it slightly more acidic than seems right as the flavour will be balanced out by the other ingredients in the salad.
3. Dress your salad just before serving, otherwise it will go soggy sitting in dressing for ages.
4. Go light on the dressing – don’t drown your salad, you still want to taste the rest of the ingredients. Taste and add more as appropriate. You can always add more, but you can’t take it out if you over do it.

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It’s asparagus season, and the best thing to eat with asparagus is a nice piece of pan seared salmon.

And what holds this meal altogether and rockets it into the gourmet stratosphere?

Hollandaise sauce.

Hollandaise sauce isn’t hard, but it does take a little care and attention. I usually whip this up before cooking a meal, and let it sit off heat until I need it. It might form a skin if left for a while, you can prevent this by covering it with a little baking paper, but I usually just give it a stir every now and then. If necessary, it can be very gently reheated before serving.

A double boiler or bowl over simmering water is usually recommended, but I just cook this up in a normal saucepan. The key is to melt the butter slowly, whisking continuously. If unsure, add only a tiny amount of butter at a time and stir it in before adding the next pat. To regulate the heat, I just lift it off the burner and continue to whisk.

Slow and steady turns out a perfect sauce every time but it still only takes about 5 minutes to make.

Method

1. Combine yolks, lemon juice and cayenne in a saucepan. Whisk together well.
2. Set the pan over a very low heat and add the butter a little at a time, whisking so that as the butter melts it is blended well into the yolks. You want the butter to melt slowly, so regulate the heat by removing the saucepan if necessary. Remember slow and low prevents the hollandaise from separating.
3. When the butter has melted continue to whisk over low heat until sauce thickens slightly. Taste the sauce and add the salt and pepper to taste and any extra lemon juice if needed.

If your sauce does happen to separate, as long as the yolks haven’t scrambled, it is salvageable. Remove from heat and add 1-2 teaspoons of water and whisk vigorously. If this doesn’t work, add 1 – 2 teaspoons of water to a bowl and whisk in sauce drop by drop at first and then in a continuous stream. I’ve had to do this once and the sauce was perfectly fine in the end, despite the kicking and swearing.

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When it comes to comfort food we often think of mashed potato or pasta, but soft polenta would definitely have to be my favourite comfort food. I love its soft, carby, creamy, buttery goodness.

You can get instant polenta which cooks in only a few minutes, or regular polenta that takes about 40 minutes to cook. I’ve only used regular polenta so I can’t compare, but I’m told that it is better than instant.

When making polenta a skin kind of cooks to the bottom of the pot. To clean, soak in water overnight and this skin just peels right off.

Of course, it’s the real cream, the real butter and the real parmesan that make this dish so good.

Method

1. Bring the stock or salted water to the boil
2. Pour in the polenta, stirring as you pour. Bring to boil then reduce to low heat and simmer until done, stirring regularly. ‘Done’ can take a few minutes if you’re using instant polenta or approximately 40 minutes with regular polenta. If the polenta gets too firm, then add some extra water as it cooks. If you want firm polenta, use less water.
3. When soft, stir in the butter, cheese and cream and serve.
4. For firm polenta leave out the cream and spread across the base of a slice tin. Refrigerate until cool then cut into slices to pan fry or grill.

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