Potato Salad

(This is from Food in a Minute)

700 g – 1 kg baby new Potatoes, scrubbed

a handful of chopped up Salami

a handful of chopped up Bacon

4-5 Gherkins, sliced

approx  ½ cup Mayonnaise

5 Spring Onions

1 tablespoon Sour Cream

a couple of pickled Cocktail Onions, if you like

 

Cook potatoes in boiling, salted water, cover and simmer gently until just tender, about 10-15 minutes (mine took more like 20 minutes, they were a bit soft, but my wife tells me that’s the way they’re meant to be).  Pan-fry the salami and bacon until crisp.  Remove, draining any fat off before adding to the salad.  In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard and gherkins.  Drain cooked potatoes and rinse in cold water, drain well.  (You might want to chop the potatoes before boiling, but i chopped them after draining.  Bit messy chopping cooked potatoes though.)  Turn into a salad bowl with salami, spring onions, cocktail onions, bacon and toss with the dressing.  Season with whatever you like to taste.

 

The original recipe has radishes in it too, which I didn’t have but would like to add next time.

Chocolate Overload Cookies

Cookies:

125 g Butter, softened

¾ cup Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1 Egg

2 cups standard plain Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

2 tablespoons Cocoa

a handful Chocolate Chips (approximately)

Icing:

10-20 g butter, softened/melted

2 cups Icing Sugar

½ teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1 tablespoon Cocoa

2 tablespoons Water

Cookies:

Preheat the oven to 190°C.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy.  Add egg, beating well.  Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa together and mix into creamed mixture.  Mix chocolate chips into the cookie dough.  Roll heaped teaspoonsful of mixture into balls and place on an oven tray.  Flatten slightly with a fork.  Bake at 190°C for about 12 minutes.  Leave to cool down before icing.

Icing:

Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a small saucepan.  Add butter and vanilla.  Add water gradually to get it to a spreadable consistency.  Put on a low heat for a few minutes and stir until the cookies are ready to be iced.

Cheese Scones

My wife is a big fan of cheese scones, and she’s been looking forward to me making some for a while now, so I made these last night before going to bed, and she decided that they’re “the best scones I’ve ever eaten”.

 

3 cups standard plain Flour

6 teaspoons Baking Powder

75 g Butter

1 to 1½ cups Milk, approximately

1 cup grated Cheese

pinch Cayenne Pepper

½ teaspoon Mustard

extra Milk

extra grated Cheese

 

Preheat oven to 220°C.  Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.  Rub in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.*  Add cheese, cayenne pepper and mustard.  Add milk and mix quickly with a knife to a soft dough (sprinkle on a bit more flour if it gets too wet).  Knead a few times (in the bowl is fine).  Lightly dust an oven tray with flour (or use baking paper).  Press scone dough out onto this.  Cut into 12 even sized pieces, leaving a 2 cm space between scones.  Brush tops with milk and put a bit of cheese on top of each.  Bake at 220°C for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 12

 

*  The recipe actually says “Cut butter in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs“.  I’ve never understood how you’re meant to do this, but my wife suggested “rubbing it in”.  So i just dumped the whole 75 g chunk of butter into the flour mixture and pretty much kneaded it in with my hands, rubbing bits off the chunk of butter into the flour, until it was nicely distributed through the flour, and it did end up resembling fine breadcrumbs.

Broccoli Cheese

1 Broccoli, whole

25 g Butter

2 tablespoons standard plain Flour

2 cups Milk

1 cup grated Cheese

Salt & (white) Pepper  (I used black, but that’s a personal preference, I think)

½ teaspoon dry Mustard

 

Preheat oven to 190°C.  Cook broccoli in boiling, salted water until tender.  While broccoli is cooking, melt the butter in a saucepan.  Stir in flour and cook until frothy.  Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens.  Remove from heat.  Add ½ a cup of the cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and mustard.  Drain broccoli and transfer to an ovenproof serving dish.  Pour sauce over the broccoli.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Cook at 190°C for 20 minutes or until golden.

This was originally a Cauliflower Cheese recipe, but I happened to have a broccoli that needed to be eaten.

Serves 4-6