When the McHenri Conquered McDonalds

You may be feeling seedy a smidgen too often around this time of year.  I cannot speak for you but when I am on holiday, wine and food are in the top list of priorities. Just a wine or two with dinner every night of the week can amount to continuous mornings of sleepiness merged with greasy cravings. And the only way to satisfy these cravings and cure the droopy eyes is to eat the greasy food, right? McDonalds? KFC? Easy, right? What do you usually get? 

I'll cut straight to the point, I hate fast-food and I always have. For me it is not just that is is unbelievably horrible for you and shouldn't be classified as food, it's that it tastes like sloppy cardboard injected with flavoured hormones and preservatives. I always explain to my friends that you can get food elsewhere that is not only real food but delicious and even cheaper. Stop being sucked in by their clever marketing, get off your, perhaps hungover, buttocks and look around! There is a bigger and much better world of food out there, real food! Why have fake greasy food when you CAN get the real deal. 

Here's proof. The most amazing, delicious, slightly greasy, REAL breakfast burger. Meet Little Henri's 'McHenri'. 

McHenri

The first two times my sister took me to little Henri all the McHenri's had sold out, they are that popular! I wish I could go back soon. This is unquestionably, hands down, beyond any doubt, the BEST breakfast burger I have ever eaten. The fresh brioche bun is lightly toasted and filled with bacon, perfectly scrambled egg, emmental Swiss cheese and kasundi Indian chutney. The combination is to die for, so much so that this utterly glorious burger deserves the attention of this whole blog post. The rest of Little Henri will simply have to wait. 

Did I mention it was only $6? Ladies and gentlemen, breakfast is served. The brilliantly REAL and more nutritious way to cure weary holiday mornings. 

Until next time Melbourne! In the mean time I'll practice my own replica of this baby. Emmental Swiss cheese and kasundi Indian chutney are new to me but I am definitely going to get some and I hope to share my own McHenri in the future. 

Much greater food does exist outside of McDonalds, you just have to look around! 

-Fee

Mountain of Sweet French Toast

When you are on a jam-packed holiday and you have one night at the beach house with your man, what is there better to do than play cards and make bets on who has to get up early and make breakfast? Best out of five it was, and like the enthusiasticly competitive card players we are, we recorded our desired menus and signed an agreement. There was no backing out. 

I still don't know how he did it. Maybe it was the yearning for French toast and bacon that lit a fire in his belly to win almost every round. Maybe it was this craving for the sweet and decadent breakfast, which I don't cook too often, that assisted his victory. And to tell you the truth, I didn't mind losing on that specific occasion.

The next morning after the squawking magpies drove me out of bed, I hurried to the shop. I truly believe that only the finest ingredients should be used to make French toast. I cannot stand the thought of bland, soggy 'eggy bread'. No, I like my crisp on the outside, fluffy in the middle, and covered in maple syrup. French toast should have a slight spice to it and then be bound with just the right amount of sweet and savoury. It should melt perfectly, seductfully in your mouth.

These are incredibly sweet, and coated in butter. But hey, they aren't made to be healthy, they are made to be delicious. And that is the reason why I don't cook them too much. A treat. 

For the toast you will need:

Fresh bread - I used a loaf that had a nutty taste to it from a wood fired bakery. 

Free range eggs - depending on bread thickness, usually 1 egg per slice

Milk

Cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Butter for frying

To top:

As much good quality bacon as you please

Fresh fruit

Vanilla ice cream

Good quality maple syrup 

One small bar of Cadbury chocolate

Canola oil

Slice your bread to your desired thickness, I prefer thicker. Turn your oven onto about 50 degrees Celsius to keep each piece of toast warm as you cook them one at a time. In a bowl whisk the required number of eggs with about two tablespoons  of milk per egg. Add two large pinches of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a non-stick frying pan on a medium to high heat. While the butter is melting put your first piece of bread into the egg mixture. Push it down with your finger tips, turn it over, make sure it is completely covered, and then let it sit for a minute. 

Once the butter is melted and the bread is soaked, carefully place it into the frying pan. There should be a delightful sizzling sound. Leave it for a couple of minutes and in the mean time, get your bacon frying in a seperate pan. I like to fry my bacon in quite a lot of oil at a reasonably high heat to make it nice and crispy. 

Every minute or so, gently lift a corner of your bread with some tongs to check the underside. When it's ready it should be a dark brown in colour and crispy in texture. Once cooked flip it over and repeat with the other side. 

Keep each piece of toast warm in the oven while you cook the rest and finish cooking the bacon. Once everything is cooked and waiting patiently in the oven melt your chocolate bar. For such a small amount of chocolate I just simply break it up into a microwave save bowl. Add a dash of canola oil and microwave it 20 seconds at a time, stirring in-between until it is all melted. 

Now assemble your mouthwatering mountain. Pile it up. Make it high. Make it pretty, and then demolish it. For mine I spread a layer of chocolate on each piece of toast, piled the bacon in the middle, let the strawberries fall where they pleased, topped it with ice cream and then drizzled the magnificent syrup on top. 

Ta da! You are done. Sit down, enjoy, and relax. It's holiday season, the season of indulgence! 

-Fee

Beetroot and Cauliflower Pizza Base

The pizza oven from heaven. 

What is a better way to finish off a gloomy Monday than make your own pizza night! Gather all your leftovers, purchase all your tantalizing toppings, and don't forget that cauliflower and beetroot!

This picture is all the family's own pizza bases and ingredients! Don't they look beautiful? I love the odd make-it-yourself night! 

I've just had a weekend full of Christmas baking, decorating and A LOT of eating (more posts to come!) so I had to start this week off as healthy as possible. But when my lovely Aunties' suggested pizza cooked in an outdoor pizza oven I just couldn't resist. Healthy, gluten free, beetroot and cauliflower pizza base it was. I've seen so many recipes for cauliflower pizza bases on Pinterest but I just wanted to try something different, something a little more exciting and a pink pizza base sounded pretty awesome to me. So I made sure I had all of my favourite toppings; baby spinach, parmesan, cranberry sauce (the good stuff with whole cranberries!), brie cheese, some figs, smoked chicken, and mozzarella.  Obviously you can choose your own ingredients, but if you want to eat the best pizza in the world I suggest you follow my instructions (I'm kidding, or am I?).

To make your pizza base it's really quite simple. In a food processor blend up half of a medium cauliflower (or a whole small one) and an average sized beetroot. Once blended so it looks like fine rice, microwave in a bowl for 7-8 minutes. Once microwaved, be careful it'll be very hot, wrap the mixture up in a clean tea towel. Squeeze and ring the tea towel with all your might until no more juice comes out. You will be surprised how much juice comes out and how much it will decrease in size! Once you have gotten as much out as possible put the mixture back into the bowl, add an egg, some fresh rosemary, oregano, Italian parsley, 1/4 cup grated parmesan, and some salt and pepper. Give it a good mix up and then spoon onto baking paper in a prepared baking or pizza tray. Use your hands to push it out into a good pizza-like shape. It should be moist enough to hold together nicely. I like to make the edges a little thicker. Bake for 15 minutes (or until slightly crispy), then scatter your toppings on and bake for another 15. You're done!

However, cooking in that pizza oven does make it so much more divine... It gives it that smokey flavour! 

Practical, perfect, and pretty pizza! Oh... And healthy! Profitable? You get the point, awesome pizza!

Bon-appetite! 

-Fee

Simple Pan-Fried Salmon

Did someone say Salmon? 

Simple pan fried salmon on a bed of mashed kumara and accompanied with baby spinach, garden peas, and balsamic roasted carrot chips. Sounds fancy. 

Yesterday was the most perfect day. Like any other Saturday, I went to the farmers market to get the usual fruit and veg and try whatever food was on offer. Yesterday a lovely lady was serving raw chocolate, walnut and apricot fudge, spring carrot salad cups, and raw chocolate dipping sauce and oh my, it was beautiful. I love the different recipes they have each week and I love how they only use food from other farmers market stools. Decadent jams, stews, cakes, sauces and breads. Feast your hungry little eyes on all their glorious recipes here http://www.otagofarmersmarket.org.nz/pages/18/Recipes

So after trying to make as much conversation as I could in order to keep eating samples I made my way over to the fish stool and saw a lovely salmon fillet for only $10. It was then I decided I was going to have salmon for dinner. Matt, my boy friend and partner in eating food together forever was over the moon. 

I had never cooked a salmon before and I don't have many ingredients at the moment due to being in-between houses, so that is why I call this recipe 'simple salmon'. Matt complimented this dish by saying it was on par with, if not better than any salmon he has had in any restaurant plus, when you cook salmon at home you get a much bigger piece and pay about a fifth of the price! 

Make sure to buy your salmon fresh, a fish supplier shop or any kind of market is usually best. That way you can guarantee freshness. Some supermarkets cannot be trusted. Those sneaky devils put so much crap into food it scares me. So, best to stay clear. 

Want to make a restaurant quality salmon dish at home? Here's how.

You will need

A 350g salmon fillet cut in half. (It really doesn't matter on size and how many pieces you want, this is just what I did)

1 large kumara (sweet potato)

5 small carrots

2tblsp Olive oil

2tblsp balsamic vinegar

Handful of baby spinach

Garden peas

Fresh Italian parsley

Salt and pepper

2tblsp cream

25g butter

Oil to fry salmon in (I used avocado oil infused with lime)

To make the balsamic roasted carrots I whisked the balsamic vinegar and olive oil together with course sea salt and pepper and then poured over the thinly sliced carrot pieces that were on a prepared baking dish. I then roughly chopped some parsley up and sprinkled over top before baking the at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes or until nice and crunchy. 

Once they were on their way to delightful crunchy heaven I chopped and boiled the kumara. While the kumara was boiling I got out a couple of plates, placed some spinach in each, steamed the peas and de-boned the salmon. 

To de-bone a salmon fillet, keep it skin-side down and with one hand underneath to push up, use your other hand to feel for the spiky bones sticking out the top. To remove each bone I use tweasers to grab them and gently wiggle them out. This way they don't break when you try to remove them! When done, season your salmon with sea salt and pepper ready for frying.

When the kumara became soft, I mixed it with butter, cream and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. Once mashed and then whipped with a fork to make light and creamy I put the pot lid back on to keep the kumara mash hot while I fried the salmon. 

Now the fun part! I oiled my non-stick frying pan so it's covered and then placed it on a high heat. Once hot, I fried the salmon skin-side down for about two minutes, until brown and crispy. Then I fried the other side for another two minutes. You know it's cooked once the middle falls apart nicely with a fork. If I buy a fat fillet I like to make sure all sides have been seared slightly. Beautiful and crispy on the outside and so soft on the inside. 

Serve the salmon on the bed of mashed kumara and baby spinach with a side of garden peas and balsamic roasted carrots. Garnish with Italian parsley. Bon-appetite! 

Now pour a glass of wine and enjoy your five star meal at home.

-Fee

Quadruple Chocolate Banana Muffins

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!! I love to bake with chocolate, and to tell you the truth, I love it so much that I always have blocks of chocolate stored up just for baking. By blocks of chocolate I don't mean ‘cooking chocolate’, I mean chocolate such as Cadbury or Whittakers. I vary between the two brands (depending on what is cheapest at the time usually). I prefer to use this good quality chocolate because it gives my baking the quality it deserves.

And so, being the sweet tooth that I am, I just had to choose a sweet recipe to start with. Here is an easy favorite...

For these muffins I used Cadbury's top-deck and old gold chocolate blocks. I only used half of each block for one batch of muffins, saving the rest for another time. I love this combination of chocolate because the bitterness of the dark chocolate counters for the sweetness of the lighter chocolates. Sweet, but not over powering.

I like to bake these muffins with oil instead of butter because this makes the muffins nice and moist. Oil is excellent for making muffins (and cakes) moist because unlike butter, it is a liquid at room temperature. This plays a huge part in keeping baking from becoming dry or tough when cooled back down to room

I have already mentioned how I always have chocolate ready to bake with, another thing I always like to have handy is frozen ripe bananas. As soon as any bananas become too ripe I chuck them in the freezer. It is incredibly easy to grab a frozen banana out of the freezer, put it in the microwave for a minute, peel off the skin, and then add it to any recipe. Once microwaved for a minute or so, I find that the bananas are usually so soft they don’t need much more mashing, therefore they can be added straight into the mixture!

!

(Microwaved frozen bananas are the best!)

This is a really simple recipe to follow, anyone is capable of making these delicious treats!

 Salt you say?! Often people become nervous about adding too much salt to their baking and therefore don’t add enough, or none at all. Don’t be one of these people! Yes, it does say 1/2 a teaspoon (this seems like a lot), but never be afraid to put the whole amount in. Salt is important when it comes to baking, even in the sweet things. Salt helps to bring all of the flavors to life and to balance them all out at the same time. Don't skip any ingredients, they all matter!

 The combination of the banana, egg, and oil shows just how nice and moist these muffins are...

I love chunky pieces of chocolate and so does my man, so I always cut rough pieces (so much better than pathetic chocolate chips you buy in the packets). Whenever I am cutting the chocolate up I can’t stop my self from having a piece, or two… doesn't it look beautiful?

On another note, when the recipe says fold, it means fold. Over mixing can cause muffins to become dense and tough. All you need to do is fold the wet ingredients in until everything is only just combined. The mixture may look like a lumpy mess and not smooth at all but this is good! This helps to keep air in the muffins, keeping them moist but also light! 

One more tip, when making these muffins I always use butter (or margarine) when greasing any sort of baking tins. Butter never sticks. Not only is it non-stick, but it always tastes great. Make sure you fill each muffin tin up to the top rather than only 3 quarters fill. This way you will get ‘large top’ muffins, just the way I like them!

I guarantee that everyone will love these muffins, they are truly delicious. Not the most healthy, but hey, we can treat ourselves every now and then!

Ingredients:- 1 1/2 cups flour
– 1 cup caster sugar
-‘heaped’ 1/4 cup cocoa
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 3-4  medium mashed ripe bananas
– 1.3 cup oil
– 1 egg
– chocolate chopped up (read above)

Method:
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt. In a separate bowl combine mashed bananas, oil and egg. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until only just combined. Do not over mix. Finally, fold in the chocolate chunks. Spoon the mixture into medium sized greased muffins tins. Fill each tin almost to the top. Bake at 160 degrees on fan bake for 20-25 minutes. They are finished when a skewer comes out clean or the  muffins bounce back up when pushed slightly.

Enjoy 

~Fee