Yelly Eats

Oversharing my lunch!

My go-to recipe is my Salt and Chilli belly pork.  It is so easy to make.  But the challenge is what to pair it with.  I am more inclined to pair it with steamed veg.  Usually the broccoli-cauliflower-carrot medly or just the broccoli or just the cauliflower.  Or some leafy green vegetable like choi sum or kale wilted.

Today it was paired with green beans.  The recipe has come from The BBQ Book from Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube series printed by Penguin books.  The book was purchased mainly for Christian Stevenson’s (aka DJ BBQ) dry rub recipes (they are amazing!).  But I’ve made 2 things from his book now and they are all so great to eat!

The BBQ Book

The green bean recipe is called Woodstock Dan’s green beans and is a doddle to make!  You just need a little bit of oil, a smidgen of butter, green beans (of course!), a sprinkling of nutmeg and salt and pepper to season et voila!  You have Woodstock Dan’s Green Beans!

Woodstock Dan's green beans

Lunch was consumed really (really) quickly today!

Green beans and chilli pork

Yelly Reads

The Cake Book Challenge!

I am doing a Julie Powell!  This challenge that I’ve taken on is getting more and more daunting as I think about it.

I have decided to cook through this book:

The Cake Book

It’s a book from Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube series (I also have the BBQ Book too which is excellent!) published by Penguin Books.  The book is called The Cake Book.  The recipes are written by Jemma Wilson who is the wunderkind behind Crumbs & Doilies.  If you’re into street food, you’ll know that C&D offers a really good range of lovely (heavy on the lovely) cupcakes.  I love the mini cupcakes that they offer the most because they are bite-sized pieces of heaven!  And they look so cute and dainty, almost too good-looking to eat.  Almost.  I thought to myself, well, if these are Cupcake Jemma’s recipes, well, they are definitely worth making!

There are 50 recipes in The Cake Book.  There are 26 weeks left in the year.  If I manage 2 recipes each week, I will have cooked through the entire book at the end of the year!  I am thankful that I can bring the cupcakes to work or share them with friends.  Because my blood sugar would not appreciate the increase in sugar intake!

I like that I am in the same situation as Julie Powell was when she started the Julie/Julia project.  I have a full-time job and a long commute at both ends of the day (mind you, I’m not sure how long Julie Powell’s commute was!)!  Am I crazy?  Definitely.  Is this self-inflicted project bigger than I think it is?  Probably.  But am I excited?  You betcha!  There are so many interesting recipes in the book.  I am looking forward to making brittle!  If Julie Powell can do it, so can I!

Yelly Eats

Apple Pie

Right.   I’m braving the lions, so to speak, and posting this recipe.  It needs improvement and I haven’t actually gotten around to improving it yet.  So the warning is, “caveat emptor” if you do try the recipe.  This attempt at creating a “pretty” pie was inspired by a Rick Stein episode.  He was in France and he visited this lady who makes these gorgeous apple pies.  Needless to say I had to try to make it and well, my attempt needed a LOT of fine-tuning.

For the crust (as Jamie Oliver recommended):
Store-bought puff pastry, a 450g package (or thereabouts)

For the topping:
Store-bought filo pastry, a 270g package (or thereabouts)

For the filling:
4 Jonagold apples (you could use Granny Smith but you’ll have to use more sugar
1/2 c caster sugar
1/2 c light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c cornstarch
3 tbsp lemon (fresh if you can get it, but bottled is fine too!)
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp sugar

Directons:

  • Press the puff pastry into a spring form pan (a 9-inch one will do).
  • In a mixing bowl, mix sliced apples, lemon juice, sugars, cinnamon and cornstarch (as Nigella said, your hands are the best mixing implements).
  • Arrange the apple mixture in the puff pastry shell (be as creative or as O.C. as you want to be!)
  • Cut each filo pastry sheet into 4. Fold into a triangle and “crumple” on top of the apple mixture. Do this until the pie is completely covered.
  • Beat the egg and sugar. Beat until egg mixture is fluffy. Brush over the topping.
  • Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 45 mins to 1 hr, when you see the syrup bubbling through the topping, turn down the oven to 150C and bake for 10 more minutes.