Creme Fraiche Pizza

My sister went to France a few years ago, and after dining in Strassbourg, up near the German border, she came back with this amazing pizza topping.  It was something I'd never heard of before but after we made it once, we were hooked !  Have you ever put creme fraiche on you pizza before? 

Well, after buying creme fraiche once, I was glad to find out you could make it at home, because it is pretty expensive !  And this pizza is so yummy, you know....so...

 1 Litre of Cream  +  1 Tablespoon of buttermilk = creme fraiche,

well almost.  Mix them together well in a jar.  Put the lid on, and  leave it on the bench for 24 hours.  Then put the jar in the fridge and leave it another 12-24 hrs and it will thicken up even more.  Delicious !  I love it on cake, or any dessert really, on pancakes, and yeah! on pizza !!

Here's the creme fraiche after 24hrs on the bench and another day in the fridge.  Beautiful !

And here's the pizza.

To make it, spread a good layer of creme fraiche over your pizza dough.  Then add a layer of very thinly sliced raw potato, and sprinkle over some diced bacon.  Cook it in the usual way and serve it with some fresh ground pepper and a nice green salad. 

What !! You DON"T make Tortillas ??

I am always  AMAZED   that  OTHER   people are amazed because I make my own tortillas.  I mean, seriously, they are the easiest things in the world to make  !!  My big girls have been making them for years - they are expert tortillas makers.  Unfortunately for me, they have both left home, so now I have had to start making them again .

Tortillas are so versatile.  Wraps are IN in a big way - the healthier option - sandwich wraps, burritos, enchiladas, and all that other delicious Mexican food, you can even make pizza out of them, they can be sweet or savoury, they can be made into crackers, and probably have a billion other uses too.

So have a try at making your own, they really are so easy to make and taste sooo much better than those perfectly round bits of cardboard you get at the shops !

Here's how my girls and I have always made them...

Tortillas

4 cups plain flour

125 gr softened butter

1 tsp sea salt

1 1/3 cups water

Place flour, butter and sea salt into a bowl.  Squish the butter into the flour and salt with your hands.

Add all of the water and mix it until it all comes together nicely.

Knead it for about 5 mins until you get a nice smooth dough

Divide the dough into about 12-16 balls (a bit bigger than a golf ball size).

Then coat a ball lightly with flour to stop it sticking to the bench, and roll it out thinly - thinner is better.  Make sure it fits into your pan !  Round shapes are good, but this shape is so much easier to roll out ha! ha!

Place your tortilla into a DRY frying pan on a med - med high heat.  It's likely that the first one will be a dud - just like when you make crepes!  It will only take a couple of mins for each tortilla.  Can you see the bubbles in this photo?  This is a good indication that its ready to flip over - they don't  always bubble though.  Roll out the next tortilla while this one is cooking...

Cooking the second side

Finished batch of tortillas.  I keep them wrapped in a clean teatowel until dinner time.  They keep well in a plastic zip loc or airtight container in the fridge for a couple of days.  I'm sure you could freeze them too.

Now you have another food item you won't have to buy at the supermarket ever again!! 

 What's your favourite thing to wrap up in a tortilla?

Sourdough starter recipe...

A couple of weeks ago,  I made a loaf of sourdough bread from my new starter, and it was delicious!  It's been way too long.  I haven't made a sourdough bread since last year.  Consequently,  my old starter went to pot in the back of the fridge somewhere.

Starting again though, has been a positive thing, I've gone a bit sourdough crazy I think!

I got this sourdough starter recipe from my mum, so not sure where it came from originally, but it works!  It really works, and it is so easy to maintain - I've tried a couple of other recipes and failed miserably, so I'm really happy with this one.


                                      Sour Dough Starter Recipe

Days 1,2 &3:

50 grams water

35 grams white flour

15 grams rye flour

Mix & set aside for 24 hrs (covered)

DAYS 4&5&6

Discard most of starter & leave 1 Tblsp in the bowl

Add 100grams water

70 grams white flour

3O grams rye flour
Mix & leave 24 hrs (covered)

The first 3 days for me, were  a bit discouraging.  My starter didn't look like it was doing anything.  Infact, it looked kind of flat and lifeless.  I didn't even take any photos because I thought it was going to be a flop.  But then day 4 happened!  This photo was taken a few hours after the morning "feed".

Look at those lovely air bubbles !
On days 5 & 6 my starter looked like it was starving in the mornings...

Looking a bit shrivelled and hungry.

I obviously have a lot more to learn about sourdough starters, but after a morning feed, my starter was happy again.

Nice and light and fluffy.
At this point, your starter is ready for action.
I have been using this recipe, and I love the bread it makes.  The loaf is made over 24 hours, but really requires little time or effort on your part, just a few minutes, a few times over during the whole process.  Try it and see what you think!

Now while we all love sourdough at our house, we don't really eat a whole lot of

bread, which means I'm baking only one loaf a week at the moment.  (I freeze

half for the last part of the week.)  So I had to find out how to look after my

new 'friend'.  I learned how to maintain my starter while I'm not using it, with

this video from Cultures for Health. 

and after watching it, I got a bit curious as to what else I could do with that

sourdough starter that just keeps growing and growing...and it just feels wrong

to be throwing most of it away each time...look for the next post coming soon

to see what I did with the rest of that starter!!

This is how I make yoghurt...

Do you make your own yoghurt?  Have you ever tried? 

Yoghurt is a wonderful, healthy food and is so easy to make at home.  It's also much cheaper to make your own, and you can add whatever fruit you have to flavour it.

this is what I do.....
Measure out 1L of pasteurized milk. 

Then measure 1 Tablespoon of natural yoghurt for your starter.  Make sure it is a natural yoghurt and that it contains LIVE cultures.  I use Jalna yoghurt, either the biodynamic organic yoghurt, or sometimes I get the Jalna Greek Style natural Yoghurt - just because I can buy it in a smaller tub.  The ingredients list includes lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium, lactobacillus casei - these are your LIVE cultures.  It's important to use a yoghurt starter with LIVE cultures because they will innoculate your milk and help to turn it into yoghurt.

I use a 1 litre thermos to incubate my yoghurt, make sure it's had a good clean!



Once I have everything ready, I heat up the milk.  I don't use a thermometer, I just bring the milk almost to the boil, you can tell it's there when it's steaming and starts to froth a little around the edges.
I take it off the heat, and  pour it into my pyrex jug to cool down to the point where I can comfortably put  my clean  finger in and leave it there...luke warm isn't warm enough, it has to be quite warm!

When the milk is ready, I put the spoonful of yoghurt into the thermos, then  pour in a little milk and give it a good stir.  Pour in the rest of the milk, give it another good stir  and close the lid.

The yoghurt 'doesn't like to be disturbed, so I put the thermos in a corner of the kitchen and leave it at least 8 hours but no more than 24hours.



The result, yummy fresh yoghurt.  Bear in mind that homemade yoghurt isn't as thick as the stuff you buy.  My yoghurt is generally quite pourable, and sometimes thin enough to be drinkable - but  I like it like that !

You can thicken your yoghurt naturally by straining it through a muslin bag.  This removes the whey from the yoghurt, leaving a nice thick consistancy.  You can strain it anywhere from a few hours to a few days - up to you how thick you want it to be (keep in the fridge while it's straining).  Once all the whey has drained out, you'll have whats called  'yoghurt cheese'.  Yoghurt cheese is great as a spread or a dip.  Just add some herbs and any other flavour you like, or, for a really decadent treat, try these yoghurt maple balls, they are so good!

Homemade yoghurt can also be quite tart tasting.  If you're after a sweeter version, adding pureed fruit is delicious.  Or try a bit of maple syrup and cinnamon mixed into the yoghurt
too  ...mmmmmm...   I'm feeling like some right now !!

the origin of lubely...and caramel popcorn...

THIS  IS  THE  ORIGIN  OF  LUBELY...my  little movie star. 

A few people have asked me what lubely means, as in my blog title - Something lubely everyday.

About 6 months ago, Marlise, ( my  little movie star ) came up with a new word, and the new word was LUBELY.  It soon became obvious that lubely was her version of LOVELY !!!

'Lubely mummy' was a favourite phrase for a long time, but sadly she doesn't say that anymore.  My 2nd favourite was when she was slurping on a super juicey mango, then she paused and said out loud "mmmmmmmmmmmm................lubely! "  And just a couple of days ago, we were watching the Australia Day fireworks, and she used 3 words to describe what she saw ...nice...pretty...and lubely !

So there you have it, the inspiration for my blog title was my little girl, and my intention is to find "something lubely  (in) everyday".


And the 'lubely something' that we had today was caramel popcorn !!  yummy!!  Here's the recipe we used.

CARAMEL POPCORN

4-5 cups of popped corn

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup golden syrup

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup nuts (any kind) (I used macadamia nuts)

In a large pot, combine sugar, golden syrup, butter, vanilla and salt. 

Stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved.

Increase to a medium high heat and cook without stirring for 5 mins.

Stir in baking soda and remove from heat.

Add popcorn and nuts to sugar mixture and stir well to combine.

Spread onto a tray to cool.  (We were impatient so we put it in the fridge).

Dig in everyone !!!

This stuff is seriously good,  make sure you share some with your neighbours !!

mango heaven...

Do you know what these are ???

This my dear friends is a truck load of mangoes.

Heaven on the back of a truck !

We were at a playground the other day and this truck pulled up right next to us.  Our eyes nearly popped out of our heads, WOW !  never seen this many mangoes before.  The smell of the mangoes was so strong, and so sweet.

I have always thought  mangoes were the fruit of the Gods.  So delicious.  So, thankfully, they grow in abundance here in Queensland.

I remember when I was a kid, mum would buy a couple of small mangoes for our family.  It was a rare treat, because they were expensive for us, but it was better than Christmas!  I could never understand why Dad got to eat a whole mango for himself, and Mum, my sister and I had to share the other one - so not fair...but I'm making up for it now!

Look at the SIZE of this mango !

And y'know, she ate all of that!   MY baby LOVES mango, actually it must run in the family because we ALL love mango.


Not suprisingly, mangoes are healthy in so many ways.  They are rich in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.  100g of fresh mango alone will give you 25% of the  recommended daily amount of Vitamin A.  At the moment, every member of our family must be getting 100% of our daily Vitamin A from mango alone - yes we are eating truck loads.

But don't stop there....with all those fabulous Vitamins and antioxidants, mangoes are also great for your skin!  Before you throw out that mango peel, rub it (flesh side down)  all over your face.  Your face will love you for it.  It's also great as a skin exfoliant to get rid of dead skin cells. 

My kids enjoy rubbing the insides of mango skins all over themselves in the bath - too messy otherwise.

And then, Ruby discovered that the peels make great boats that stay afloat even when they are full of water!!

With such an abundance of mango, we've had mango iceblocks everyday - a healthy snack for the kids and they can't get enough. 

To make them,  puree a fresh mango and mix in a Tablespoon of natural  yoghurt.  I also added a couple of passionfruit too.

I've also frozen slices of mango for smoothies, or just to eat mmmmm......frozen grapes are yummy too!!!

And have a look at this delicious ice-cream recipe.  I've never come across an ice-cream recipe that uses egg whites !  They usually all call for egg yolks and then I never know what to do with all the left over egg whites (I've done enough pavlovas !!)  Now with yolks to spare I can make custard for a change, yum!!!

Aren't the colours fantastic !!!
MANGO CHUTNEY RECIPE

1.5 kg diced mango flesh
1-3 birdseye chilli (optional)
50g grated fresh ginger
1 lemon. zest and juice
250mL apple cider vinegar
700g brown sugar
3/4 cup sultanas
1chopped onion
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp turmeric

Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil.
Simmer gently for an hour, stirring often.
Bottle it.

I've made 2 batches of chutney so far and it is soooooo good!  I made one batch with chilli and one without,  As a result, one batch is really sweet and the other is really spicy.  I also used less sugar the first time becuase I ran out, but it was still sweet.  Now I'm eating chutney with everything!!

We are able to get boxes of  12- 15 Bowen mangoes for $15 at the moment so we are making the most of it, they probably won't be around for too much longer!!

What's your favourite way to eat mango?

chocolate zucchini cake...

I just made this chocolate zucchini cake.  I used to make it a lot - the kids love it, but haven't done it for ages - or what seems like ages anyway...so today, it was time... I had a bag of zucchini's in the fridge and everything else in the cupboard. 
If you look closely  at the photo, you can see tiny specks of green - there's the zucchini !!

The recipe:

150 gr butter
200 gr sugar
1/4 tspn salt
3 eggs
100g melted chocolate
200g finely grated zucchini
100g ground almonds
150gr plain flour
1tspn baking powder

1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Add eggs one at a time and beat in well
3. Add cooled melted chocolate, and zucchini.  Mix well.
4. Add flour, baking powder, salt and almonds and mix well again.
5. Bake at 180 Celcius for 55 mins.

So good with fresh whipped cream and berries!!

Homemade Ricotta

I had a go at making ricotta the other day.  I saw someone make it on a cooking show on TV ages ago, and put it on my -must try- list, but promptly forgot about it, as I often do.  And so recently it came to my attention again - thankyou Donna Hay's latest Spring issue, so I had to give it a go.  It was so easy to make, and it tasted really yummy - I was impressed ! Sorry Donna I didn't use your recipe, but this is how I made it...

First: something I learned just recently...if you rinse your pot with water before putting the milk in, it won't scald the milk on the bottom of the pot ! How cool is that !

I had a 2L bottle of milk with a useby date of that same day, so I used it all, well, almost all.  Just because I opened a new bottle, Ruby had to have a drink of milk, so 2L minus a bit of milk is what I used.  I added that plus 1/2 a cup of cream and 1/2 tsp sea salt to a pot and brought it almost to the boil.

2L of full cream milk ( I used the non-homogenized milk), 1/2 cup cream and 1/2 tsp sea salt, almost at the boil.  You can tell it's 'there' when you see steam rising off the milk and it starts to get frothy like this.

Add 3 Tablespoons of white vinegar or fresh lemon juice (I used vinegar) and turn heat down to low.  Keep stirring and watch it separate into curds and whey - it won't take long.

And when I finished watching and marvelling at this amazing process of separation, I turned around to find this happy little dancer had quickly and quietly climbed up onto my kitchen bench with a BIG smile on her face.  She danced a little jig and clapped her hands as I turned around - the little monkey !  And that's why I can't leave anything unattended on my kitchen bench which is really tricky sometimes as my kitchen is a tiny one and that bit of bench she is standing on, is pretty much the only bit of useable bench space in there !

Ok, so back to the ricotta...

After removing the distraction,  take the pot off the heat and let it sit for 5-10 mins.

Meantime, prepare a sieve lined with some muslin cloth and prop it up over a bowl or jug.

Then pour your curds and whey into the muslin lined sieve like this...

Make sure you put the sieve over a big enough bowl if you intend to keep the whey, as there is a lot of whey,  maybe 1-1.5 L, much more than there are curds.

The yellowish coloured whey is collecting in the bowl.  It will gush through the sieve at first, then reduce to a drip.  I only used a single layer of muslin.  Keep the whey to use as a substitute for water or milk in your baking.

After 15 minutes the contents of my sieve (the ricotta) has reduced to this amount.

And my finished ricotta looks like this - quite firm and creamy to taste - yum.  At this point you could drizzle it with honey, or mix it with some fresh herbs and spread it on bread or mix it with pasta for a tasty treat...mmmmmmmmmm...i think next time I might strain it for a shorter length of time, and leave it a bit softer for spreading.

This time i crumbled it over some cooked pumpkin...

Mashed it all together and added some chopped basil.  i used this mixture instead of a white sauce in my lasagna for dinner - it was sooo good. 

Food glorious food...

Remember these chillis from the other day??

Well they were really hot  and  REALLY good.  So here's my recipe:

Lacto Fermented Chillis

1 cup small red chillis

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1 tsp whey

Blend everything and spoon into a small jar and leave at room temperature for 3 days then refrigerate.

  How easy is that ??

Now, my chillis were a bit chunky as I don't have a proper blender - I used my stick blender.  I imagine with a 'real' blender you'd end up with a very smooth consistency - I kinda like it with texture.

TIP:  I filled my jar to the top and by the end of day 2 it had 'grown' and overflowed a little.  So I had to scoop some out.  Don't overfill your jar !

I've been mixing my chilli sauce with this lacto fermented tomato sauce recipe.  It is so yummy !  Have a go at making this sauce, because I'm sure it's about as close as you'll get to the real thing, and my kids haven't even noticed the difference - have yet to find the courage to try it out on the man in my house !!  Maybe I'll have to sneak some into the regular sauce bottle and gradually increase the ratio he! he! 

Remember these ???

well today they ended up in here.  They were so fresh and so green I just had to pick them to make some pesto.

Here's my recipe:

Basil Pesto

in a food processer, mix together

a BIG handful of basil leaves

a BIG handful of parmesan cheese

a handful of pine nuts

a couple of tablespoons olive oil

sea salt to taste

Enjoy !!

Here's what Ruby and her friends did this morning...

Mixing and singing...a little bit of love makes everything taste better !

my little girl REALLY wants to join in

so she got to eat the first cupcake...

while the rest got some special attention.

Ta-daaaaaaa!!!