Courgette (Zucchini/BabyMarrow) Tartlets

These little tarts make a good snack or even a light lunch or supper if served with a salad.  There is not much flour in these which makes them soft.  They don’t rise very much either.  I would best describe them as mini quiches.  Garnish them with a blob of sour cream and chopped crisp bacon.

5 ml olive oil

3 or 4 rashers of bacon, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium courgettes, grated

30 ml flour

3 extra-large eggs, whisked

500 ml grated cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 C and spray a patty pan with non-stick spray.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the bacon until done.  Remove the bacon and add the onions.  Fry until soft.  Put the bacon and onion in a bowl, add the grated courgettes, flour, eggs and cheese.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Spoon into the prepared patty pan hollows and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

garnish with a little sour cream and crisp bacon and serve warm.

Makes 10 – 12

Chocolate Cup Cakes

These cup cakes are light and moist.  As we are all chocoholics in our family I usually double up on this recipe but even so they don’t last too long.

125 g butter or margarine

120 g sugar

2 eggs

300 ml flour (200 g)

40 ml cocoa

10 ml baking powder

5 ml vanilla essence

125 – 150 ml milk

Cream butter or margarine and sugar.  Add eggs and mix well.  Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder and vanilla essence.  Add milk and mix well.  (It should be a soft dropping consistency.)

Put into well greased patty pans or paper cups and bake at 200 C for 12 – 15 minutes.

Decorate with chocolate butter icing or alternatively cut off tops, put jam and cream on top, halve the cut off tops and replace to look like a butterfly.  Dust with icing sugar.

Makes 12

Sausage Meat Roll

My friend Sheila gave me this recipe (and a few others) to try out for this blog so I decided to make this one first.  I must say it was really delicious and I’ll add this to my favourites.  I made this using the tomato option with 3 tomatoes but next time I will use two and drain the tomatoes even more as the mixture was a bit moist.

8 sausages – take out of skins

2 chopped apples  OR 6 – 8 chopped prunes and chopped bacon  OR 2 small (or 1 large) skinned tomatoes, very well drained

2 chopped onions

5 ml dried sage or basil

salt and pepper

1 roll readymade flaky pastry

Mix sausage meat with the other ingredients.

Roll out the pastry into a rectangle (or halve the pastry and make two smaller ones) and spread the sausage mixture over this, leaving a border all round.  Dampen the edges and roll up like a swiss roll.  Seal the edges.  Brush the top with beaten egg.

Lift onto a large flat baking sheet and bake at 180 C for about an hour.

You might find it easier if you halve the pastry and made two smaller rolls.  I will definitely do this next time, especially seeing I prefer the edge pieces!

Serves 5 – 6

Muesli Cookies

This recipe comes from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbook called “The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits” which is full of delicious looking biscuits so there might be more coming from this book in the future.

This one has more healthy ingredients than the average biscuit so don’t feel too guilty if you nibble on one of these.

185 g butter, melted

250 ml toasted muesli

250 ml coconut

250 ml rolled oats

125 ml self-raising flour (next time I will use more as they didn’t bind together very easily).  Perhaps try 175 ml.

125 ml sugar

60 ml sesame seeds

15 ml honey

1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Mould level tablespoons of mixture into balls, place about 3 cm apart on lightly greased oven trays and flatten slightly.  Bake in at 170 C for 10 – 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes about 32

Apricot Jam Muffins

Muffins are one of my favourite things to bake and the variety of muffins is endless.  These are full of apricot jam and look interesting when they are cut open to reveal their orange centre.  The sugar on top makes them nice and crunchy.

400 ml flour (200 g)

10 ml baking powder

3 ml salt

1 ml cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

125 ml sugar (100 g)

1 extra-large egg

180 ml milk

80 ml oil

50 g pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

smooth apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 200 C.  Grease a muffin pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add the sugar and mix.  Beat together the egg, milk and oil.  Add to the dry ingredients, together with the pecan nuts.  Stir until just blended.  Do not overmix.

Fill each muffin hollow three quarters full with the mixture.  Make a hollow in the centre of each muffin and spoon 5 ml apricot jam into each hollow.  Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

Makes about 10 muffins

Crumbed Baked Haddock

This dish has a lot of flavour and is easy to prepare when you don’t have much time.  You can leave out the onion, garlic  and peppers if you wish, and even the crumbs on top in order to make it even simpler.  In fact that is the way I have always prepared this dish but today I thought I would add these additional ingredients which greatly improved an already flavoursome dish.  Either way it’s a winner.

500 g frozen smoked haddock fillets (no need to thaw)

chutney

1 onion, sliced

half a green bell pepper (sliced)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

cheese sauce

crumbs (I used a mixture of breadcrumbs and seasoned cornflake crumbs)

finely grated parmesan

 

Place the frozen smoked haddock fillets in an ovenproof dish.  Spread a little chutney on each.

Fry the onion and green pepper in a little oil.  When almost done turn down the heat and add the garlic.  Fry for a minute or two more and then place this mixture on top of the fish.

Make a cheese sauce and pour this over the fish and vegetables.

Mix the breadcrumbs and cornflake crumbs together and sprinkle on top.  Lastly sprinkle a little parmesan cheese over this and bake at 180 C for 30 minutes.

Monte Carlo Biscuits

These biscuits look very appealing and are just as delicious.  They are particularly nice with raspberry jam but any flavour jam will do just fine.  ”Your Family” is the magazine that takes the credit for these way back in September 1981.

180 g butter

125 ml sugar

1 egg

5 ml vanilla essence

300 ml self-raising flour

180 ml plain flour

125 ml coconut

FILLING

60 g butter

180 ml icing sugar, sifted

3 ml vanilla essence

10 ml milk

raspberry jam

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the egg and vanilla essence and beat well.  Add the sifted dry ingredients and the coconut and mix well.

Roll the mixture into little balls.  Place on greased baking trays and gently press down with a fork.

Bake at 180 C for 10 – 15 minutes until golden brown.  Cool.

For the filling, cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy and add vanilla essence and the milk.  Beat well.

Place a little filling mixture in the centre of half the biscuits.  Place the raspberry jam on the other half and sandwich them together, pressing lightly.

Makes about 26

Fish Lasagne

This is one of the tastiest dishes I have made in a long time.  I am still licking my lips and wishing I could have another small helping but the waistline says NO.  In my opinion this dish is far nicer than the normal beef lasagne and less trouble, as the “meat” part doesn’t need cooking and neither does the topping.  The recipe calls for spinach egg noodles but I didn’t have any so I used Lokshen which looks like fettuccini.  It’s the thin one that’s rolled into little balls that look like birds’ nests!  Sometimes a substitution turns out better than the real thing and in my opinion this was far nicer than the spinach ribbon noodles.

I will probably be rapped over the knuckles by an Italian for saying this but I do not like my pasta “al dente”.  I like it soft and I hang my head in shame but every man to his own taste.  ( I also like to cook it in the microwave – another rap across the knuckes!) Perhaps it’s because I used this pasta instead of the specified one but I found the quantity was a bit too much so I kept some back and will use it with one of those ready prepared packaged sauces at some stage.

My son is a pasta fanatic but is not a huge fan of fish so this dish will definitely cause a bit of a dilemma for him when he comes home from work!  I have a feeling he will love it though.  [Note after publishing - the pasta lover won the dilemma.  He had one huge helping and came back for an ever bigger one and gave two thumbs up.  So this one comes highly recommended!]

This recipe appears in an Afrikaans recipe book I have which is called “Huisegenoot se Wenresepte 2″.  Directly translated it’s Huisgenoot’s (name of the magazine) Winning Recipes Book 2.  The recipes were all sent in by readers of the magazine.

375 g spinach egg noodles (I used Lokshen – see explanation above)

15 ml oil

FOR THE FILLING

Fish Lasagne before baking

oil for frying

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 can (410 g) tomato soup

125 ml water

10 ml sugar

5 ml salt

1 ml pepper

2 cans (170 g each) shredded tuna in water, well drained

FOR THE TOPPING

Fish Lasagne after baking

1 tub (250 g)  smooth cottage cheese

250 ml cream

250 ml cheddar cheese, grated

extra cheese and paprika to sprinkle on top

Cook the pasta in lots of salted boiling water in the normal way.  Drain and mix with oil.  Set aside.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onion till almost soft and then add the garlic and fry a bit longer.  Add the soup, water, sugar, salt and pepper.  Heat this to boiling point, stir occasionally and simmer for 10 minutes over low heat.

Flake the tuna and stir into the soup mixture.  Set aside.

Mix the cottage cheese, cream and cheddar cheese together.  Set aside.

Put half the pasta in a greased ovenproof dish (20 x 20 x 5 cm).  Put half the fish mixture on top and then half the cheese sauce.  Repeat the layers once more.

Sprinkle the extra cheese and paprika on top.

Bake at 180 C for 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

Savoury Bacon, Onion and Cheese Pinwheels

Instead of a sweet biscuit try something savoury for a change.  I made these little savoury rollups which were supposed to contain marmite but because I had no marmite I substituted bacon, onion and cheese, with good results.  They are at their best straight from the oven.  I had a friend around for tea so I put them on a hot-tray to keep them warm.

250 g flour

15 ml baking powder

150 g butter or margarine

1 egg

15 ml maizena (cornflour)

salt to taste

FILLING

5 rashers bacon, cooked and chopped

1 large onion, chopped and fried

250 ml grated cheddar cheese

FOR THE TOP

1 egg

sesame seeds

salt

Rub the butter or margarine into the flour.  Add the baking powder, maziena and salt.  Add the egg, beaten with 40 ml water and mix well.

Roll into a rectangle approximately 38 x 30 cm.  Trim the edges and spread with the cooked bacon and onion.  Sprinkle the cheese on top.  Cut in half so each is 19 x 30 cm.  Roll up each half fairly tightly like a swiss roll, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer (preferably overnight to make it easy to slice).

Then cut into thin slices.  Beat an egg and eggwash each slice.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top if desired and a sprinkling of salt.

Bake on a greased baking tray for 10 minutes at 200 C.

VARIATION

Substitute the above filling with the following:

60 ml butter or margarine

15 ml marmite

125 g cheddar cheese, grated

Spread over the pastry and roll up as instructed.

Spicy Buttermilk Fruit Loaf

I love spices in cake and this one is full of spices and fruit.  I found this recipe in the “You” Magazine of 8th August 2002 (one of the two magazines I used to buy on a regular basis – but now only occasionally – and always tore out and kept all the recipes from them).  The recipes in both these magazines (You” and “Your Family”) are sent in by readers and they are tested by the magazines.  I have made this one many times over.  It reminds me of a boston loaf which is also made in a jam jar, giving perfectly round slices.  It is delicious served with butter.

500 ml flour

125 ml butter

250 ml sugar

5 ml bicarbonate of soda

10 ml mixed spice

5 ml cinnamon

3 ml nutmeg

125 ml currants

125 ml candied peel, finely chopped (or 125 g chopped dates)

15 ml syrup or honey

300 ml buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease two large jam or fruit tins (10 cm diameter and 11.5 cm high) with butter or nonstick spray.  Line the base of each with baking parchment or greaseproof paper and grease as well.

Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter.

Add the sugar, bicarbonate of soda, spices, currants and candied peel (or dates) and mix well.  I never seem to have peel so I always use dates which are perfect in this cake.  Mix the syrup or honey with the buttermilk and add to the flour mixture, stirring until blended.

Turn the batter into the prepared tins and bake.  The recipe says to bake for an hour and a half but I find an hour is more than sufficient.  As all ovens are different just test it with a skewer and when it comes out clean it is done.

Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out.  Leave to cool completely and serve the slices with butter.