Chocolate Crackles - No Copha (vegetable shortening)

 

A classic childhood favourite, but made without the unhealthy copha (vegetable shortening)!!

1x pack fun size mars bars (216grms approx.)
1/4 cup cream
1 tbsp. cocoa
3 cups rice bubbles

Melt mars bars and cream in a pyrex dish in the microwave in 30 sec bursts and then pour into a mixing bowl with rice bubbles and cocoa. stir until combined and spoon into patty cases. Cool in fridge for 30 mins.
Sprinkle with 100's and 1000's, coconut or edible glitter :-)

Not just for kids parties!! ;-)

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Potato Gnocchi & Mushroom Chilli Tomato Sauce

3 Large all purpose floury potatoes (800Gm approx.)
3 egg yolks
1-2 cups flour (its always different)

Boil potatoes until tender, when warm to touch peel skin off.

Place peeled potatoes in a sieve over a mixing bowl and press through with the back of a spoon.

Mix in yolks, salt & pepper to taste and incorporate flour 1/2 cup at a time, (I used 1 & 3/4 cups this time) until its not sticky. Flour a surface and cut dough into 4, then roll each quarter into a log 2 cm diameter and cut 3cm lengths.

Place on a floured plate until cooking.
To Cook: Bring a pot of water to the boil add salt and add gnocchi, boil slowly until they float then after 2 mins scoop them out to drain.

I put mine straight from the water into a simmering pan of tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, chilli, onion, passata, basil and parsley. Then served sprinkled with cheese.

TO FREEZE: I put the left over gnocchi on a floured plate spaced out and froze until hard then transferred to glad bags. These can be boiled straight from frozen until they float as above.

You can add parmesan cheese, spinach puree and parsley for flavoured gnocchi too!

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Italian Almond Cherry Biscuits

 

200 gm Almond meal
170Gm caster sugar
2 Egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup plain flour
Glace cherries, halved

Preheat oven to 190C. In a food processor mix all ingredients except cherries, spoon into a piping bag and pipe small rounds on a baking sheet, top with cherry, bake for 15-20 mins. Dust with icing sugar before or after baking optional.

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Easy Corn Chip Chicken Nuggets

Half a packet of flavoured corn chips
2 eggs
Chicken breasts sliced into nugget size

Crush corn chips with a rolling pin, or food processor. Whisk eggs into a small bowl, and coat the chicken pieces in the egg then press into corn chips. Fry in a fry pan or bake in a moderate oven lightly sprayed with oil.

Serve with tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, or Sweet chilli sauce and Sour cream.

YUM!

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Steamed Pork Dumplings

Dumpling Dough

2 Cups Plain Flour

1 Egg

1/2 Cup warm water

Place flour in food processor and turn on high quickly add egg and water one after the other and whizz for about 20/30 seconds until dough comes together. Tip out and knead for 30 seconds until smooth. Set aside on bench wrapped in cling wrap for 30 mins.

Filling

500Gm pork mince

3 spring onions, chopped finely

1/2 red onion chopped finely

2 cloves garlic minced

1tsp ginger powder

3 tsp soy sauce or tamari

1 TBSP hoisin sauce

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together.

Then pinch off a walnut sized piece of dough and roll out circles on a lightly floured surface until very thin. Place in a pastry/dumpling press and spoon 1 heaped teaspoon of mince mixture into the middle of the circle and fold in half. You can pleat the sides if you don't have a press.

Steam in a steamer basket for 8-10 mins, until cooked. Serve with chilli sauce, sweet chilli sauce or soy sauce etc.

 

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Beef, Guinness & Mushroom Stew

 

Oil
1 Onion, sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, crushed
500gm Mushrooms, Sliced
500gm cubed beef
2 TBSP Plain Flour
1 carrot, sliced thinly
1 large celery stick, sliced thinly
400ml Guinness (I used Guinness Draft brand, comes in a 440ml can)
2 cups Beef stock
salt & pepper to taste
Handful of frozen peas

Toss beef in flour until coated and fry in batches until browned slightly, set aside. Add more oil and lightly fry the onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic for about 2 mins. Add beef and guinness and allow to come to a simmer then add the stock and salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and simmer on low for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. Throw the peas in at the last 15 minutes.

Serve with Mashed potato, or spoon into pie dishes and cover with puff pastry.

You can also put this in a low oven (160C) in a casserole dish for the same time or throw all ingredients into the slow cooker for 6-8 hours, just reduce the stock to 1 cup.

Great for a St. Patricks Day dinner!

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Nori Rolls

Nori sheets
Sushi rice
3 TBSP white vinegar and 1 tsp sugar mixed together
Fillings (chicken, tuna, bacon, scrambled egg, shredded lettuce, grated carrot)
Mayonnaise and/or mashed avocado

Cook sushi rice to packet instructions (usually it equal parts rice and water) and leave to cool.

Mix in enough vinegar and sugar mix to loosen a bit (usually about 2/3 TBSP).

Lay your sushi rolling mat and place a nori sheet on top.

Spoon over rice to cover 3/4 of the sheet

Next add your toppings. In my case Tuna, mayo & lettuce.

Roll up tightly and slice carefully with a sharp damp knife.

I serve mine with sweet chilli sauce.

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Mini Bacon & Egg Pies

3 sheets puff pastry
5 rashers of bacon chopped into pieces
12 eggs

Preheat oven to 210C. Grease a muffin pan with butter. Fry bacon until cooked and drain. Cut pastry in half from top to bottom then left to right so you have 4 squares to each pastry sheet. Carefully line the muffin pans, add bacon and carefully crack an egg on top. Salt and pepper. Carefully fold the edges of the pastry over the egg, Brush with milk or egg wash and bake for 20-25mins.

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Antipasto Platter

I like to make one of these and keep it in the fridge for a few days and nibble away at it. Also good for a lazy dinner....perhaps on a weekend with a nice glass of wine :-)

Meats (Ham, salami, cabanossi etc)
Cheese (Hard: Cheddar, gouda, Soft: camembert, brie, persian feta, marinated feta)
Olives
Sundried tomatoes
Pickled gherkins
Pickled onions
Marinated artichokes
Dips (Pesto, French onion, chilli jam, quince paste, chutney)
Crackers,grissini sticks, rice crackers

Arrange on a nice platter. You can garnish the plate with lettuce leaves and lemon wedges if you want to make it look fancy for a party etc.

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Cherry Chocolate Tiramisu

250G Mascarpone cheese
150ml whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 TBSP Raw caster sugar
100G finely grated white chocolate, halved
1/2 can of pitted cherries in syrup, drained and chopped finely, 2 TBSP syrup reserved
250G packet of Savoiardi (Italian sponge finger biscuits)
2 TBSP cocoa + 1 TBSP caster sugar
Extra cocoa for topping

Whip cream, vanilla and sugar until soft peaks, add mascarpone cheese and beat until thickened. Stir in half of the grated white chocolate.

Mix 1 cup boiling water with the cocoa and sugar mixture in a wide bowl. Quickly soak the biscuits and arrange in a dish. Sprinkle cherries and syrup over biscuits and top with mascarpone mixture.

Dust with cocoa, remaining grated white chocolate and extra cherries. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

*You can by all means use coffee in the dunking mixture, like a real tiramisu, and also some kirsch (cherry flavoured liqueur) or brandy with the cherry syrup. But I usually keep mine child friendly.

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