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Lili’s Mince Pies

Extremely delicious mince pie recipe from Lili. Makes 24.

For the mince

  • 100g each currants, raisins, sultanas, chopped dates
  • 50g each candied peel, glacé cherries (halved), flaked almonds
  • 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • 4 tbsp brandy
  • 1 tsp each of nutmeg, ginger, mixed spice

Mix. Don’t skip the banana, even if you hate banana. Trust me.

For the pastry

  • 250g butter, softened
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 400g plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • icing sugar for dusting

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 200C. Brush two mini muffin trays with a thin layer of melted butter.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale. Add egg yolk and mix well.
  3. Add flour and salt and mix until just combined.
  4. Divide into two discs, wrap cling-wrap and stick in the fridge for an hour.
  5. Keep a quarter of the pastry for the tops, and divide the rest into 24 balls. Use your fingers to squish each ball into the tray like it’s play dough to form the bottom case.
  6. Fill each case with mince.
  7. Roll out the remaining pastry dough and cut out your tops (I do a little star).
  8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
  9. Cool on a wire rack, then dust with icing sugar.
December 9, 2024 Lili christmas snacks

Creamy mushroom and miso pasta

Ingredients

  • Dried pasta for 4 peeps
  • 600g mushrooms, sliced (chestnut shrooms if you can get em, otheriwse swiss browns or buttons)
  • 2 large handfuls of spinach
  • small bunch of chives (finely chopped + extra to serve)
  • olive oil
  • sea salt
  • lots of black pepper

For the sauce

  • 20gms dried porcini mushrooms
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 300gms silken tofu
  • 2 tbsp brown rice miso paste
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced
  • Salt

Method

  1. Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl and cover with 150ml of boiling water. Leave to soak for 10 minutes.

  2. Next, put the pasta on to cook.

  3. While the pasta cooks, heat a frying pan to medium and add a drizzle of olive oil. Then add the mushrroms and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until tender.

  4. When the dried mushrroms have done soaking for 10 minutes, put them in a blender with their soaking liquid and the rest of the sauce ingredients. Blend until smooth - season to taste.

  5. When the pasta is ready, drain it, reserving some of the pasta water.

  6. Stir the drained pasta, the sauce, the chopped spinach and the chives into the mushroom pan. Cook everything together for a minute or so, until the spinach has wilted, adding a little of the reserved pasta water if needed.

Serve with sea salt and lots of black pepper (and spare chives).

From (Instagram)[https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuP-bV2MGlQ/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==]

November 13, 2023 Tom dinner vegetarian

Chilli tamari cauliflower

Ingredients

  • 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp tamari

Tamari honey sauce

  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup tamari (or soy)
  • 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp ginger, grated
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed and roughly chopped
  • Pinch of chilli flakes
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 4 spring onions, chopped
  • 1 red chilli, finely sliced
  • 3 tbsp sesame seeds

To Serve

  • Brown rice, cooked
  • Stir-fried seasonal greens (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 200C

On a baking tray, place the cauliflower florets and add the oil and tamari. Toss everything together and place in the oven to roast for 20 minutes.

While the cauliflower is roasting, make the tamari honey sauce. In a small bowl, add the cornstarch and water. Mix to combine and set aside.

In a small pot add the tamari, rice vinegar, honey, ginger, sesame oil, garlic and chilli flakes. Stir to combine. Then add the cornstarch water mix. Bring to the boil and stir constantly for 30 seconds. As you stir the sauce will thicken. Remove from the heat after 30 seconds and set aside.

In a pan, heat up the oil and add the spring onions, chilli and sesame seeds. Fry everything off for a couple of minutes, then add the roasted cauliflower and tamari and honey sauce. Stir everything together and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes.

To serve, add everything into a bowl. Feel free to add stir-fried greens on the side.

From (Instagram)[https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtYUmgURdGJ/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==]

October 9, 2023 Tom dinner vegetarian

Ciannon’s Ginger Tiramisu

Ingredients

  • 2 packs ginger nut biscuits
  • 600mls whipped cream (or more)
  • Stones green ginger wine
  • Dark chocolate for grating to decorate

Method

(Basically a chocolate ripple cake crossed with a tiramisu)

  1. Dunk ginger nut biscuits in ginger wine one at a time and glue together with a teaspoon-ish of whipped cream
  2. Assemble in to log/cake shape in a pan depending on your preference
  3. Cover with whipped cream and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight
  4. Grate chocolate over the top before serving (or decorate in some other fashion)

Notes

Log shape means you can cut it on the angle to get cute stripes, but you could just as easily layer it in baking dish like a regular tiramisu.

You could use half/half mascarpone and cream but it would significantly increase the richness.

Make sure you’ve got plenty of cream, running out before you’ve coated it all at the finish is a PITA.

Don’t get impatient and try and soak multiple biscuits at once - biscuit sludge lesson learned.

February 3, 2023 Ciannon dessert

Nuts ‘n’ bolts

A traditional Stringer family Christmas staple. Pretty sure this originally came from the back of a Nutrigrain packet in the 80s sometime. On paper it looks revolting, I get it, but it is genuinely, surprisingly delicious - a very pleasing mix of sweet and salty and crunchy and it takes literally minutes to make.

I frequently make at least a double batch and put it into glass jars for Christmas presents. Also excellent for general Christmas snacks. It rarely fails to please.

Ingredients

  • 350 gms Nutri Grain
  • 375 gms Salted Mixed Nuts
  • 1 packet Cream of Chicken soup mix
  • 1 packet French Onion Soup Mix
  • 2 tsp Curry Powder
  • 1 tsp Mustard Powder
  • 1/2 cup warm vegetable oil

Method

  1. Add all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Stir/mix well so all ingredients are mixed.
  2. Add warm vegetable oil and mix through well.
  3. Store in an airtight container.
December 18, 2021 Tom christmas snacks

Lucas Christmas Trifle

This is a family tradition - my sister and I would spend the whole year dreaming about our Christmas trifle, and how everyone loved it and it was the best thing ever. We never noticed that our cousins avoided it like the plague. Turns out that in 25 years of Christmases they had NEVER ONCE EATEN IT. They were turned off by the custard mixing in with the cream and the fruit. Wimps.

Ingredients

  • 2 tins of tinned berries - I like cherries and raspberries, but boysenberries and blueberries are good too.
  • 600 mls of cream, whipped.
  • A Swiss roll, cut in to 2 centimeter rounds
  • A good slurp of sherry

Christmas custard

  • 2/3 cup of custard powder
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 3 cups milk
  • 3 eggs separated
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Method

In a saucepan, blend the custard powder and sugar with a little cold milk. Add the rest of the milk and heat over a medium flame, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens (this is a very thick custard - it shouldn’t droop too much in to the other ingredients when it’s assembled). Turn the heat off and add the egg yolks, stirring quickly so it doesn’t turn in to scrambled eggs, add the vanilla at this stage too.

Allow to cool then fold in lightly beaten egg whites.

To assemble, drain one of the tins of fruit, and retain the juice from the other. Pop it all in the bottom of a large glass bowl and add a good slurp of sweet sherry. Line the jam roll rounds around the edges of the bowl on top of the fruit (don’t let it sink in too much - the jam should help it stick to the sides of the bowl to stay above the fruit line…). Top with the custard and then the whipped cream.

December 18, 2021 Sahr christmas dessert