Caramel yoghurt

Hello everyone, sorry, another very quick blog today as I am on the way into work. Not really how I had anticipated spending this weekend but there are things that just have to be done. I can't wait for a whole weekend entirely to myself - it has to happen sometime! Happily I am in the countdown now to a couple of weeks holidays at the end of winter.

This is the most luscious creation which I have been meaning to add to the blog for some time. It is a really rich kind of cream, which you can serve with poached fruits, pies and tarts, chocolate cake or anything else with which you would serve cream. I often serve it with fudgy little individual serve chocolate cakes. It comes from Simple Food by Jill Dupleix, and is yet another example of how sometimes the simplest recipes can be the most effective!

Caramel yoghurt

What you need:

• 200ml whipping cream
• 200g thick Greek yoghurt
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

What you do:

1. Whip the cream in a bowl until peaks form.
2. Lightly fold in the Greek yoghurt, using a spatula or a wooden spoon, then pour the mix into a wide shallow bowl.
3. Scatter the brown sugar evenly over the surface.
4. Cover and chill for an hour - this will allow the brown sugar to melt and form a caramel syrup.
5. When ready to serve, swirl the caramel sauce through the yoghurt.

Layered potato and apple bake

Hello everyone, this is a very quick post today. I am helping out with a fundraiser tonight and earlier in the week I offered to wrap up the eight or ten prizes that had been donated. I planned to go up to where we are holding the event 15 minutes early. Apparently an avalanche of prizes has come in during the week so I'm now going up hours earlier to start wrapping and sticking! Who knows what I will find.

This week's recipe is absolutely luscious. It comes from the book "Growers Market" by the appropriately named Leanne Kitchen. I made it last Sunday afternoon when it was cold and miserable outside. It took no time at all to slice the different components, layer them in a deep baking dish and whack into the oven, and I was rewarded with a beautiful bake later that night. The apple in the dish gives it a lovely sweetness; it would go really with roast pork or pork chops.

Have a wonderful week, love from Jane xx

Layered potato and apple bake

Serves four

What you need:

• 3 large potatoes
• 3 green apples
• 1 onion
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese (or if you had some other cheese in the fridge that melts well you could substitute)
• 1 cup thin cream (or thick cream if that is what you have in the fridge)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180.
2. Grease a large shallow baking dish.
3. Peel and thinly slice the onion.
4. Peel the potatoes and slice thinly.
5. Peel, halve and core the apples and slice thinly. (If you are not super quick at peeling and slicing, just drop the slices of potato and apple into a bowl of cold water and a little lemon juice as you work, to prevent them browning; drain and pat dry with paper towels before using).
6. Layer the potatoes, apple and onions in the baking dish, finishing with a layer of potatoes.
7. Sprinkle evenly with the cheese and then pour over the cream.
8. Sprinkle with nutmeg and black pepper to taste.
9. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown (make sure the potatoes are cooked through when pierced with a knife).
10. Remove from the oven and stand for five minutes before serving.

Tomato soup with tortellini

Hello everyone, as I said I would in last week's blog, I did lots of lovely cooking over the long weekend. I made a chocolate mousse on request for my niece for her birthday cake, and also tried out a recipe I mentioned some time ago for a pear and chocolate crumble. I thought the crumble was average, so will play around with the recipe to see if I can make it more to my liking.

I was given some beautiful finger limes before the weekend, so made a few winter salads using the lime juice in the dressing and they were beautiful! Such a great flavour. Good to know I have a lime supplier sitting just four desks away from me at work.

I also made this beautiful tomato soup, which features in the May edition of delicious magazine. My favourite section in the magazine is a feature called Tuesday Night Cooking. It always has really quick and easy yummy recipes in it. I actually had quite low expectations of this soup as it's so simple, there is nothing to it. I was happy to find that the flavour was stunning and I enjoyed it all through the week for lunch as well.

Have a fantastic week, love from Jane xx

Tomato soup with tortellini

Serves four

What you need:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 6 sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped
• 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 300ml vegetable stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar
• 400g cheese and spinach tortellini

What you do:

1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat.
2. Cook garlic for 30 seconds until fragrant.
3. Add all of the tomatoes, stock and bay leaf.
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer over a medium-low heat for 15 minutes until thickened.
5. Cool slightly then blend until smooth.
6. When ready to serve, cook the tortellini in boiling water until cooked. Drain and place in bowls.
7. Heat the soup through and season with sugar, salt and pepper.
8. Ladle soup over tortellini and serve.

As an alternative to the tortellini, when you heat up the soup you can have some coucous sitting in the serving bowls. When you pour over the hot soup it will quickly cook the couscous and your soup will thicken up.

Pasta with fresh salmon and peas

Hello everyone, what a relief for those of us in Sydney that the rain has gone away and we can finally see blue sky! I am particularly pleased for my cat, whose twenty year old bones really like having the sun on them. I used to think she was old when I was under the impression she was four years younger than she actually is, but now that I know her real age I realise she is very old and needs all the comfort she can get. Such as sharing the salmon I cooked last night for this week's dish.

The recipe I'm giving you is based on one in my Heart Of The Home book. They used smoked salmon, of which I'm not a fan, so I substituted fresh salmon. And although the thought of the cream in it was VERY appealing, given my ever present quest to lose just a few kilos, I used evaporated milk instead, which worked well, surprisingly. You can use cream if you prefer!

Have a great week and enjoy the long weekend. I'm planning to do lots of long, slow baking and hope to test another crumble recipe to share with you.

Love from Jane xxx

Pasta with fresh salmon and peas

Serves four

What you need:

• 500g fresh salmon
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 3/4 cup dry white wine or verjuice
• 4 tablespoons shallots, finely sliced
• 1 1/4 cups thickened cream or evaporated milk, depending on the state of your waistline and whether you care!
• 400-600g pasta, fresh or dried
• 4 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

What you do:

1. Cook the salmon, either in a pan on the stove or baked in the oven.
2. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.
3. Drop the peas into a pan of boiling water until thawed; drain and set aside.
4. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and cook the pasta while preparing the sauce.
5. Put the wine/verjuice and the shallots in a pan on the stove and bring to the boil.
6. Allow the wine/verjuice to reduce by about a tablespoon.
7. Lower the heat and add the cream/evaporated milk; simmer for about five minutes. (Keep an eye on it as it can separate if overheated).
8. Gently break up the cooked salmon into chunks and add, with the peas, to the sauce. Warm through.
9. When the pasta is cooked, place it in a serving bowl and pour the sauce with the salmon over it.
10. Sprinkle with the pine nuts and toss gently before serving.