Monday, September 23, 2013

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta (with some avocado)

This is more of a supper-inspiration post:

Sautéd mushrooms and fried chicken mixed into some al dente penne makes a great meal. Since it's still avo season, add some chopped pieces of that and sprinkle over some black pepper and blue cheese for a kick.



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Herman's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Around here these cookies, or biscuits of you will, have quite a delicious reputation. Our family friends, the Herman's, generously shared the recipe with me a bunch of years ago, and they stand the test of time and are still a firm favourite today. 

Ingredients: 
500g butter
2 cup treacle sugar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
6 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300g dark chocolate

Method:
1. Beat the butter into the sugar until it's creamy.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat them in.
3. Add the vanilla and beat that in.
4. Use another bowl for mixing the dry ingredients: sieve the flour, salt and bicarb.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet.
6. Mix in the chocolate (chopped into bits) and then roll the dough into 3cm wide balls.
7. I use a non-stick baking tray to put the dough onto. The cookies grow quite a lot in the oven, so I usually can only fit about 12 cookies on one baking tray.
8. Bake at 180'C for 20 minutes. If your oven is hotter at the back, be sure to turn the tray so that the biscuits closer to the element don't burn at the bottom.


Notes:
Sometimes I only use regular sugar if I don't have treacle sugar at hand.
I also like to divide the dough into thirds and then flavour each third differently. Flavours I've tried before include adding a little cocoa powder, some nuts, or cocoa powder and chilli, or just plain cardamom seeds with out any chocolate.