Easy Cole Slaw

Shred one head of cabbage and two or three carrots (peeled) into a bowl and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup mayo, 4 Tablespoons sugar, and 2 Tablespoons white vinegar.  Add to cabbage mixture and stir until combined.  If it doesn't look goopy enough for your taste, mix up some more dressing.  You can also adjust the vinegar to taste. 

It's always nice to let it marinate in the fridge for a little bit, but not necessary.  I sometimes make it and just stick it in the fridge while I make the rest of dinner.

Super easy (especially if you have a food processor or shredding attachment to your mixer) and very yummy!


EDIT:
If you want a yummy twist on this favorite, add to the dressing: the juice of one or two limes (to taste) and cilantro (one bunch, chopped). BAM! Yummy cilantro lime Cole slaw

Funky Lime Pizza

I originally posted this funky lime pizza here. I have refined it a fair bit so am reposting with the refined directions ...

pizza dough enough to make two pizzas

4 cloves garlic, minced ~ I do a whole lot more but you do what you like !!

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

2 ears of corn, kernels removed

pinch of black pepper

2 cups Mozzarella, shredded

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

zucchini, thinly sliced

feta cheese, crumbled

fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves, coarsely chopped

juice of 2 or 3 limes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F/ 200 C if using oven.  (We do ours in our outside pizza oven ... and have even done it in the weber ... just cook it however you would normally cook pizza)

Use your favorite dough, roll out two bases.

Drizzle olive oil on both bases, spread around with a spoon.  Sprinkle with black pepper.  Top with zucchini, onion, corn and feta.  Top with mozzarella.

Bake for about 8 minutes then swap which rack the pizzas are on. Bake for another 5 - 8 minutes, til cheese is done to your liking ! I like it a bit brown ...

While the pizzas are cooking, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, til light brown ... DON'T BURN IT !! Burned garlic is bitter and narsty ! (that's for you Jimmy !)

Immediately after removing the pizza from the oven, top with garlic, squeeze a lime over the top and cover with the cilantro.

I serve with additional lime and we sqeeze more lime over during the meal !!

PS ... I googled funky lime pizza today and my original post came up FIRST ! How fun is that ? It also brought up another couple people who have reposted the recipe. One I knew about. One I didn't. Again ... FUN !!!

Raw Key Lime Pies

 

These little things are delicious!

I found the recipe here and just had to try it. I changed it just a little bit after reading through some of the suggestions in the comments.  And next time I will double the crust because I had WAY too much filling. (I'm not putting the double crust recipe here though as you may not find that necessary ... maybe I have smaller cupcake molds?) The original recipe was for eight cupcakes or one pie.

Crust: (like I said ... this is the single recipe but I'll double it next time)
1 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1 cup  walnuts
a pinch of sea salt
10 dates (pitted)

Filling:
1&1/2 cups mashed avocado (this was three avocados!!)
3/4 cups fresh squeezed lime juice (I ran out of fresh so I used a bit of the bottled stuff to top it up)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
zest from one lime

Method:

Put crust ingredients in your food processor.  Whizz that up until it's crumbled and moist.  Push that together in the bottom of your cupcake molds.  I went and bought some silicone ones.  You'll want to too or else you'll never get them out!!

Put filling ingredients into food processor.  Whizz that up until it's smooth.  Taste it.  Try not to eat it all right now!  You can adjust the taste by adding more honey or lime juice.  I did neither.  It was so tasty!!

Spoon that filling into your cupcakes molds on top of the crust.

Freeze until set.  

**I took these to a party the first night I made them and since there were lots of us, we just cut them up and shared.  I reckon that is the way to do it.   We have a couple in the freezer and we've been taking one out a night, cutting it into four and sharing.  It's sorta like one perfect bite!!  Yum!!

Australian Key Lime Pie

Ellie and I tried our hands at Key Lime Pie the other day.
I think I can pretty safely say it was a success.
We based our pies on this Martha Stewart recipe but had to change some 

things as we couldn't get some of the ingredients!

Here's what we did to make TWO PIES. 
(obviously, if you want one pie, you should halve this recipe)

1 package butternut snap biscuits
1/2 package granita biscuits
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 (395g/14oz) cans sweetened condensed milk
8 egg yolks
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons grated lime zest
3 cups thickened cream
Lime slices and lime zest to garnish

Heat oven to 375F/190C. 

Melt and cool butter.  Combine two types of biscuits in food processor and whiz until they become crumbs.  Mix crumbs, butter and the 6 tablespoons of sugar.  Put half of this mixture into each pie dish and form the base of your pie.  Bake about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Let cool on a wire rack.

Lower oven to 325F/160C.   Using your mixer, gently whisk the egg yolks, lime juice, zest and condensed milk.  Pour half of this mixture into each pie crust.  Bake until centre is set but still quivers when you give the pan a little shake.   This took about 15 minutes ....

Let cool on a wire rack.  We were in a hurry so we cooled it for 1/2 an hour on the wire rack and then put it in the fridge for another hour or so ...

When ready to serve, use the whisk attachment to whip the cream and the caster sugar together on  a medium speed.  Spoon over pie.  Garnish with zest and lime slices.  (You can probably make it prettier than I did on the pie above!!  ha ha.  I was in a hurry to serve and eat it!!)

Spicy Chicken Soup

This was delicious. I used this recipe as a base but I made a few changes. If you are a kitten tongue like my cousin Pam, then you probably won't like this because it is SPICY !! But ... I pulled out some chicken before I added the chipotles, and cooked it in plain broth for Alia ... she liked that.

olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
7 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 chicken breasts, chopped into small bite size pieces
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
6 cups chicken broth
1 bunch cilantro
Juice of 2 limes
S & P
avocado, sliced for topping

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil, add chicken. Cook til just about cooked through. Add chipotles, adobo sauce, and chicken broth. Simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in cilantro and lime juice; season with salt and pepper. Top with avocado.

The original recipe said to top with the tortilla chips ... we didn't but Rory added a few crackers and Jono added sour cream to cool his down a bit.

This fed the four of us for dinner, with corn on the cob on the side, and there was one bowl leftover for Rory's lunch. Next time I might use three chicken breasts to stretch it a bit further ...

Burrito Bowl

This is such an easy meal ... I love it.

We just throw everything on the table, or on the kitchen counter, and everyone

makes their own bowl to their own liking.

Here's what we have in ours, but you can do whatever you like, that' s the beauty of the burrito bowl !

Brown Basmati Rice, cooked and mixed with lime juice and fresh coriander (cilantro)
Black Beans
Grated Cheese
Spring Onions, Sliced
Black Olives
Guacamole
Sour Cream
Salsa (optional)
Jalapenos (optional)

That's it ... then just fill your bowl with whatever combination takes your fancy ...



My bowl.



Rory's bowl.

**

yum

Lemon Soda ... on Lime

Andrea posted this photo on her facebook page on Christmas Day.
I took one look at it and HAD to KNOW what it was !!

Lemon Soda is an Indian drink called Nimbu Pani (thanks for that little bit of info, Gareth!) and all I can say is thank you India ! And thank you Andrea ! It is refreshing and oh so smoooooth ....

For one 16 oz glass:
3-4 tablespoons simple syrup
One muddled lime (sometimes more!)
Fill the rest of the glass with soda water (club soda) or tonic water.
Sprinkle salt.

Put in the freezer for a bit to chill.

You can drink them like that or you can add a "blub" of tequila, gin, vodka or ... whatever floats your boat. Last night, I added tequila to ours.

Do you need to know how to make simple syrup ? Yeah ... I did too ! It's simple ! (imagine that !) All you do is boil one cup of water. Add one cup of sugar. Take the pan off the heat. Stir and let cool. Simple, right ?!

Mmmmmm ! I want to make some more !

Lime {and} Cilantro {and} Salmon {and} Rice

My inspiration for this dish came from this recipe but I changed it a little bit ... The original recipe used the oven but I don't have a dish that can go between stove top and oven so I didn't mine a bit differently ...

Here's how I did mine.

¼ cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons finely grated lime zest
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, plus additional for sprinkling
4 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
¾ cup sliced shallots (about 3 large)
1 ½ cups brown basmati rice
3 ¼ (or more) low-sodium chicken broth
2 salmon fillets salmon fillets
2 bunches broccolini, chopped

Mix lime juice, lime zest, honey, 2 tablespoons cilantro, and soy sauce in a small bowl; set aside.

Heat oil in big electric frying pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and sauté til beginning to brown. Add in rice, and broth; bring to a boil. Cover tightly with lid and cook til rice is 10 almost cooked through.

Push the rice to the sides to make room for salmon. Add salmon to frying pan ... seasoning both sides with salt and pepper, and a bit of lime mixture. Add broccolini. Cover.

Cook until salmon is done to your liking (I turned it once). And I think I broke it up into smaller pieces to allow it to cook faster ...

Once fish is cooked, drizzle remaining lime mixture and chopped cilantro oven fish and rice.

I served this with spicy potatoes and kale crisp !

Funky Lime Pizza

I got this recipe here. If you need a recipe for the dough she's got one included. Or you could try Khrista's whole wheat dough, or my bread maker dough. (I used my bread maker dough for this, as I do for every pizza I make !)

So ... I made two pizzas with this amount of topping ... (and yeah, I modified it but not too much)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

1 ear of corn, kernels removed

pinch of black pepper

1/2 t red pepper flakes (I just put this on the table for people to sprinkle as wanted)

1 lb Mozzarella, shredded

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

zucchini, thinly sliced

feta cheese, crumbled

fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves, coarsely chopped

juice of 1 lime

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (she did a bunch of tricky stuff with the pizza baking process, i prefer simple so didn't do any of that ... you should go check out her way if you like tricky ... )

In a small bowl, combine the garlic and olive oil and set aside.

In a bowl, toss the corn kernels with the black pepper and red pepper.

Scatter half of the Mozzarella over the pizzas, leaving a 1/2" rim. Place the onion over the cheese and the zucchini over the onion. Scatter the remaining Mozzarella over the zucchini. Sprinkle with the feta and the corn.

Bake for about 8 minutes then swap which rack the pizzas are on. Bake for another 5 - 8 minutes, til cheese is done to your liking ! I like it a bit brown ...

Immediately after removing the pizza from the oven, brush the garlic oil onto the rim, squeeze the lime juice over the top and garnish with the cilantro.

This method of brushing with the olive oil left the garlic a bit raw for our tastes. Next time, I think I will add the garlic to the pizza itself and just brush with plain olive oil at the end ...

I love gadgets ...

One of my favorite kitchen gadgets is this Pampered Chef Citrus Press.
My sister Ellie made me buy one when I was in the States two years ago.
I'm so glad I listened to her.

Udon Prawn Salad

I got this recipe from
The Matthew Hayden Cookbook 2

It was nice. Refreshing.
The noodles were a bit funny but I think that was our fault -
not the fault of the noodles or the recipe !

500g fresh udon noodles (I used 880g)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped
1 small red onion, finely sliced
2 spring onions, finely sliced
500 g cooked prawns, peeled (I only used about 350g)
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 bird's-eye chillies, seeded and finely chopped
lime wedges, to serve

All you do it prepare the noodles as directed on the packet. The recipe said to toast the sesame seeds, but I didn't. I just used them un toasted. Put the noodles in a bowl. Add the oils ... toss to coat. Add the remaining ingredients and toss to combine. Serve with the lime quarters.

It says serves 2-3. I added extra noodles and it served the four of us with a small amount left over for lunch tomorrow !