Chocolate Berry Pastries

Apparently these are 'Breakfast Of The Year.' Easiest breakfast since sliced toast. 

Cut a sheet of frozen puff pastry into squares, put an appropriate amount of Nutella and berries in a corner, fold each into triangles, seal with a fork and bake on high. Dust with icing sugar and serve hot. 

Big discussion amongst the kids today as to how frequently they should be served for breakfast. Some thought they were so special they should be kept for once a month, others thought to hell with that let's have them at least once a week. So there you go. 

Chocolate caramel cups

As made for us by Ms Gamer.

Make the base with 60g melted butter, 2 tbsp caster sugar, 1/2 cup plain flour, 2 tbsp desiccated coconut. Press into the base of little patty cups and bake at 180 until they're a bit golden.

Microwave up a can of condensed milk with 40g butter and a couple of tbsp golden syrup. (Yeah, 'cause it wasn't sweet enough already.) Pour onto the semi-baked bases. Return to oven until they're sent and slightly coloured. Lace over with melted chocolate if you like.

Kangaroo Pies

Half a kilo of kangaroo mince, fried up with onions, finely diced carrots and thickened with a cornflour and wine mix at the end. Season with plenty of salt and pepper, loads of herbs of your choice and a touch of chili flakes. Allow to cool. 

For this amount of mince you'll need shortcrust from 300g flour. (150g butter or a touch less.) I put in a bunch of thyme leaves and pepper. Looked cool, tasted great. Ok the kids said it looked mouldy but that's kids for you. They liked the taste. 

Make pies in deep muffin pans. Bake on 180 for quite a while, until they're golden. Serve hot. 

Coconut Macaroons

Four egg whites, 1 2/3 cups sugar, 2 cups desiccated coconut, vanilla essence.

Whip up the whites, meringue them up with the sugar, then fold in the vanilla and coconut. Dollop onto greased paper and bake at 150 for quite a while. Maybe 35 minutes or more? Makes tasty chewy biscuits and they're jolly easy. Good afternoon snack.

Herby cheesey dumplings for stews

Cook these for 20 minutes on top of ready stews.

300g self-raising flour, 100g butter, 2/3 cups milk, pinch salt, cheese and herbs of choice. I like LOTS of fresh herbs, rough chopped. Rub flour and butter, mix into dough with milk, add cheese and herbs. Roll into balls. Can cook like little scones for other applications. Such as snarfing down with butter and ham for lunch. Kid favourite.

Peach and raspberry cheesecake

For the base: a 250g packet of Arnott's Granita biscuits and 100g butter, melted. Blend, mix, press into lined base of slice tin. Chill for 30 minutes.

For the cheesecake mix, first rough chop and microwave one peach. Chuck in blender with 2 x 250g packs cream cheese, 120g sour cream, two eggs, some vanilla, and 1/2 cup sugar. Pour onto chilled base.

Sprinkle 100g raspberries over the mix, then arrange thin slices of peach over the top to cover everything. Bake at 150 c for 45 minutes. Open oven door and let cheesecake sit there until it cools. Then chill for 2 hours. Yes, this is a bit of a marathon. Eventually, after that, they let you eat it. You deserve it by now, you're probably famished.

,,, Addendum....

OK So I made this once, and it was a great success and very tasty but for next time I want to try to following:

• Leave out the raspberries, they amount to nothing. If you want the flavour make a coulis for after. 
• Increase the peach puree by about three times in the mix, leave out some of the cheese and increase by one egg. Maybe add a tablespoon of cornstarch or so. Also add some lemon zest. 

Thai Fish in Bamboo Cups

For the paste:
Lemongrass, shallots, garlic, tumeric (fresh), dried chilies, galangal  .....  kaffir lime, toasted peanuts, coconut milk. ---> Blend into a paste.

Fry paste in oil, add sugar, soy sauce, salt, kaffir lime and coconut milk. Thicken with beaten eggs and add fish chunks. Into banana cup, into steamer for 10 mins. Serve with rice.