Rouxbe

Rouxbe (pronounced roo-bee) is a fantastic website that provides online instructional videos which can help to improve your cooking techniques.  Rouxbe is aimed at home cooks looking to improve their techniques and knowledge with videos from professional cooking school instructors.  According to it’s website, the focus is on food and not celebrity chefs.

The best part about this website is that it offers highly detailed, step by step instructions which are just what you need when you want to learn new techniques or hone your skills. 

Rouxbe offers free 30 day membership however at the end of your 30 day membership you will be required to become a premium member ($99 US annual or $199 US for lifetime membership) to continue to gain access to it’s cooking school and instructional videos.

Check out the lesson on crushing and mincing garlic as well as this lesson on dicing and mincing onions.  Rouxbe also offer a fantastic free lesson as well on wheat and gluten.

Lime meringue muffins

Unfortunately I’ve been rather neglectful of this blog in the last few months.  A lot has changed in my life since then.  My wonderful boyfriend has returned from overseas with the army, we travelled across Australia together, we’ve moved in together and we’ve moved house.  Life is definitely beautiful!  So much so that we hate to spend time apart (even for me to update this blog).  Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realise that this isn’t all a dream to have such a wonderful, thoughtful, caring man in my life, but dreams do come true.  Anyway, enough rambling, on with this post.

The other night my boyfriend and I had some lemon meringue pies, which were delicious and inspired me to make these muffins.  After visiting the Jan Power’s Growers Markets yesterday we came back with a large quantity of limes (which I adore and not just because they can be used to make delicious mojito’s) which I decided to use in this recipe.  I have to say the result is to die for.  It’s basically a lime meringue pie in cake form.  I hope you enjoy.

Muffin recipe

4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
3 large eggs
1½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup buttermilk
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
zest of one lime

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well after each one.
4. Add flour, buttermilk, baking powder, lime juice and lime zest and mix until well combined.
5. Prepare a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.  Spoon the mixture into each.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out cleanly.

Lime curd

zest of 2 limes
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

1. Combine the sugar, lime zest, and juice in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer.
2. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat until light.
3. Add some of the juice to the eggs and beat in well.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and cook until mixture thickens, stirring constantly.
5. Set aside to cool.

Meringue topping

2 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp lime juice

1. Add the egg whites and sugar to a bowl and mix on a high speed until soft peaks begin to form.
2. Add lime juice and beat for a minute to combine.

Final Assembly

1. With a sharp knife cut a hole in the centre of the muffins, without cutting all the way through.
2. Fill with curd and replace the cut out.
3. Spread the meringue mixture on the top with a knife.  I suggest making little peaks in the mixture with the knife as these peaks will go a little crunchy when you put them under the grill.
4. Turn on the grill in your oven and place the muffin tray under the grill to brown the meringue topping.

How to poach an egg in the microwave

 

I am a huge fan of poached eggs, but the amount of time and effort required to cook them used to put me off having them.  Well, that’s now a thing of the past having learnt how to poach an egg in the microwave.  Better still, it couldn’t be easier.

What you need:

Boiling water
A deep bowl (noodle bowls are good for this as they are tapered at the bottom)
A plate that is a little bigger than the bowl
A spoon
Vinegar
Eggs
Paper towel

Method:

1. Fill the bowl half full of boiling water and add 1 teaspoon of vinegar.

2. Stir the water so that it begins to form a whirlpool in the centre of the bowl and then stop and let the whirlpool settle a bit.  Crack the egg on the side of the bowl and slip the egg into the whirlpool.

3. Cover the bowl with the plate and place in the microwave for 75 seconds (time required will depend on your microwave)

4. Remove from the microwave, ensuring the egg white is cooked, and strain on paper towel. 

5. Tada…poached eggs in under 2 minutes!!!!

Roasted tomato and fennel soup

Even though the weather is getting warmer and most people tend to only think of soups in winter, I have been enjoying them a bit lately.  They are easy to make, everything is in one pot, and great to take to work to reheat as lunch.  Last night I made a roasted tomato and fennel soup.  I have been using fennel a bit lately, particularly in minestrone, and thought I would try roasting it with tomatoes and make a soup out of it.  I picked up some lovely truss tomatoes at the supermarket the other day, which were perfect and resulted in a beautifully flavourful soup.

8 truss tomatoes, quartered
1 large onion, quartered
1/2 a large fennel bulb (or a whole small one), chopped into pieces about the size of the quartered tomatoes
fennel leaves, chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 cups of stock (depending on how thick you like the soup)

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius.

2. Mix the vegetables in a bowl and coat with the oil, salt and pepper.  Toss to coat and then spread into a baking tray lined with baking paper.

3. Place baking tray in oven and cook until the skin on the tomatoes starts to shrivel (about 30 to 45 minutes).

4. Peel the skin from the tomatoes.  This is optional, but I prefer the skins removed to ensure a smoother soup.

5. Place the tomatoes, fennel, onion, and garlic in the blender along with 1 cup of stock.  Blend until smooth.  Check the consitency and add more stock if required.

6. Serve with crusty bread.

Gingerbread biscuits

I have already baked these once for my gorgeous guys care parcel and they finally arrived on Monday, and he immediately requested more.  I’m not a fan of ginger biscuits, but I am assuming from his enthusiastic response they are delicious.

80ml (1/3 cup) golden syrup
55g (1/4 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
30g (1 1/2 tbs) butter, at room temperature
190g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
2 tbs self-raising flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 egg yolk

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place golden syrup, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat and stir until butter melts. Remove from heat. Set aside until cooled.
3. Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and mixed spice into a bowl.
4. Add an egg yolk to golden syrup mixture and use a wooden spoon to stir until combined. Add sifted flour mixture in 2 batches, stirring after each addition until just combined. Use your hands to bring the dough together.
5. Roll level tablespoons of dough into balls. Place on lined trays, 3cm apart, and flatten. Bake, swapping the trays halfway through cooking, for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Set aside on trays for 30 minutes to cool.

Icing

150g (1 cup) icing sugar mixture, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp butter, at room temperature, extra
1 1/2 tbs milk (approximately)

Combine the icing sugar, vanilla essence, extra butter and enough milk to form a paste in a large heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (bowl should not touch water). Stir with a metal spoon for 3-5 minutes or until smooth. Remove pan from heat, leaving bowl in it to keep icing runny. Dip top of each biscuit in icing and place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Set aside for 15 minutes to set.