KristinHove

• 50g butter
• 750g brown onions, sliced
• 1/3 cup plain flour
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 thyme springs
• 2l beef stock
• 1 cup white wine
• croutons

Heat butter in a fry pan, saute onions till deep golden brown and starting to caramelise. Add flour and continuously stir for 1 minute. Gradually add beef stock and wine. Bring to the boil and add bay leaf and thyme, simmer for 25 min. Ladle into soup bowls, top with croutons and cheese and put under grill till brown.

Yummy and healthy breakfast !

• 1 cup frozen, or 1.5 cup fresh blueberries
• 2.5 cups of water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3/4 cup dark rye
• 3/4 cup oats

Boil blueberries with the water for five min. Add remaining ingredients, and boil for another 10 min while gently stirring.

The time is here for hot porridge for breakfast. This version is fruity and fresh and will keep you warm in the morning.

serves 4

1 cup of rice porridge

juice of half a lemon

2 cups of water

1 cup of apple juice

seeds from 1 pomegranate

Combine rice porridge, juice of lemon and liquid. Bring to boil and simmer until thick, and the rice is soft. About 10 min. Top each serving with seeds from 1 pomegranate.

Sydney’s weather is starting to get cooler, and we can finally find an excuse for late mornings and more time inside. I’m embracing this time with home baked buns and a hot apple drink.

Breakfast buns (makes 20)

• 1 pack of dry yeast or 50g fresh yeast
• 400 ml lukewarm water
• 400 ml buttermilk
• 4tbsp honey
• 400g whole meal flour
• 400g white flour
• 100g oat flakes
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 beaten egg
• sunflower seed and oat flakes to sprinkle.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water, then add buttermilk and honey. Sift the flour, salt and oat flakes together and stir into the yeast mixture. Let it stand for a few minutes.Put the dough onto a surface, sprinkled with flour. Knead well for about 5 minutes and return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic and a tea towel and leave to rise for an hour at room temperature. Dust your hands with flour and cut the dough into 20 small buns. Shape them round by rolling them on the bench. Put them on a prepared tray with baking paper. Glaze them with a beaten egg and sprinkle with sunflower seeds and oat flakes before baking in oven for 30 min. cool on a wire rack.

And yes, I did get to eat marzipan this Easter as well!  And tradition is kept once more!

• 300g almond meal
• 400g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• egg white from one egg
• 30g cocoa for dusting

Mix almond meal and icing sugar before you add the lemon juice and egg white. Combine well with your hands until it’s a smooth form. Divide the dough in two parts and roll them long and thin. slice each roll into 25 parts. Roll each part into small balls and coat with cocoa. Roll them gently in your hands before you wrap them in cellophane for a nice gift to someone  or place them on a tray for serving. Keep refrigerated and covered until you serve them.

Happy Easter!

The Sydney’s weather is doing nothing good for my Easter mood at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon and I will get in the mood to make some marzipan. The Norwegian Easter treat. But until then I will share this salad with you, it’s one of my favorites.

Serves 4

Salad

• 100 g of blueberries
• 40 g of dried cranberries or fresh pomegranate.
• 30 g of sunflower-seeds
• 40 g of walnuts
• 30 g of goat-cheese
• 30 g of feta-cheese
• Rocket or iceberg salad

Blend all together before drizzling the dressing over.

Dressing

• 60 ml of maple syrup
• 40 ml balsamic vinegar
• 10 ml of white vine vinegar
• a pinch freshly ground sea salt .

Pastry

2 3/4 cups plain flour

small pinch of salt

150g unsalted butter

3/4 cup icing sugar

2 eggs beaten

shift flour, then rub in butter till it resembles fine bread crumbs.

Add the salt, sugar and eggs and combine together.

Then press together only a little to form a smooth dough.

wrap with plastic and place into fridge for at least an hour

Roll mixture on a lightly floured surface and carefully place into loose bottom tin.

Refrigerate again for 1 hour.

cover with baking paper and then baking beads.

Bake in the oven for 10 min on 180c, remove beads and bake for a further 3-5 min or until just cooked but not browned.

Filling

• 1 handful of roasted almonds
• 1/2 cup dried figs, sliced in half
• 3 tbsp ricotta cheese
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Spread ricotta cheese on pastry, and then figs and almonds on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with honey. Bake in oven for about 30 min on 180C.

Probably the most satisfying dessert you can finish a meal with. Banana, caramel and biscuit. Great combo!

Baked by Nicole with recipe from Chef Andy Bunn, Cafe Sopra, one of  my favourite restaurant in Sydney!

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g cans of sweetened condensed milk
• 180g unsalted butter, chopped
• 375g digestive biscuits, halved
• 60ml thickened cream (nicole used 300 ml)

Scraped seeds of 2 vanilla beans

• 75g icing sugar, shifted
• 4 bananas
• 30g dark chocolate, finely grated

Method

Serves 12

Start this recipe a day ahead.

Place the cans of condensed milk in a large saucepan of water and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2 hours adding water if necessary to ensure cans remain covered, remove cans and cool in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile melt butter in a small saucepan, and then cool slightly. Using a food processor crush biscuits to fine crumbs, add the butter and process briefly to combine. Press crumb mixture over the base of a greased 28cm loose based tin then refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm the base.

Open cooled cans of condensed milk and spoon caramel evenly over the biscuit base and refrigerate overnight to firm.

To assemble pie – using an electric mixer whisk cream, vanilla bean seeds and sugar to stiff peaks. Cut bananas into thin slices. Remove pie from tin and loosen base and place on a plate. Spoon or pipe half the whipped cream over the caramel filling, then place the bananas in an overlapping circle working from the outside in. Top with the remaining cream and sprinkle with grated chocolate.

Cut into slices with a hot dry knife and serve immediately.

Eating jelly reminds me of children’s birthday party, but if you serve them in nice glasses like these lovely old champagne glasses it can be a classy dessert for grown ups as well! And it’s actually surprisingly easy to make jelly from scratch as well! Try this and I’m sure you will soon be creating your own favourite jelly. This recipe is from Margaret.

• 750 ml moscato
• 170 gm caster sugar
• 300 gm frozen berries
• rind and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange.
• gelatin for setting 1 litre liquid

Combine moscato, sugar, berries, rinds, juices and 250 ml water in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 8-10 min. Strain liquid through a muslin-lined sieve, transfer back to pan and add gelatin already dissolved in hot water. Stir well, and divide into eight 250 ml-capacity serving glasses and refrigerate until set. ( 6 hours) .

Serve with vanilla custard and fresh berries.