www.misscookie.co.nz

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Have a look! It’s super pretty, and this one won’t be getting updated any more. Plus, all of my old recipes have moved house over to the new address, so you ought to be able to find anything you need for reference there.

Thank you!

Kelsy

Soon, you’ll be able to view my blog on my entirely new website. Which looks amazing, by the way, thanks to my fabulous partner and his amazing web design skills (www.zephyrpc.co.nz).

Anyhoo, keep an eye out for that. Coming soon!

Hence how I wound up with 12 servings of chili for less than $10 – and that’s ten NEW ZEALAND dollars. To be fair, I got the mince on sale (but it is PRIME mince, people!).

The boyfriend facepalmed when I said “You’d never know there’s a half kilo of veggies in this.” And I realised I say that every time I make lasagne or chili – I’m just so predictable. But honestly! You’d have no idea.

So here goes: a healthy, super cheap, super filling, stupidly delicious meal. You’re gonna love it. Invite all your friends over for a movie night, plus chili.

Go buy:

500g beef mince (I used prime but regular’s fine too, also I can’t see any problem with using lamb or chicken or pork mince)
500g veggies (I don’t care what you use. Celery, carrots and other hard things probably work best though)
1 can beans (400g)
2 cans tomatoes, chopped
2 cups beef stock
1 large tsp minced garlic
1 medium onion
2T oil

1tsp turmeric
1tsp cumin
1tsp coriander
1tsp chili powder
2tsp paprika
1/4tsp salt
2T brown sugar

cornflour to thicken

OK. That looks like a prohibitively long list of ingredients, I know. But this is chili! It always has a ridiculous amount of stuff in it, right?? And I promise this is the easiest thing in the world to throw together. Especially with the spices – if you get those five spices, you’re set for chili for life. No more Maggi spice packets for you, ever.

There are two versions of this recipe. One (version 1) assumes you have a stove to oven casserole, like I used, and one (version 2) does not. I’m unsure, but you might be looking at a longer cooking time with version 2. Sorry about the confused looking recipe!

If you’re doing version 1, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. In the casserole pot, heat the oil and one cup of stock.

If you’re doing version 2, heat the oil in a really big wok, or saucepan.

BOTH VERSIONS: chop the onion and throw it into the pot/wok/saucepan with the mince. Cook, stirring, until nice and browned and the onion is soft. Add the tomatoes, stir well.

Process the vegetables in a food processor – you want them really nice and small (so you don’t know they’re there! If you have kids – or male flatmates – this is a great way to hide veges) and then fire them into the pot/wok/saucepan too. Add the stock (if you’re doing version 1, you’ll just have one cup remaining – that’s OK). Add the beans and the garlic, then stir in the spices and the brown sugar and bring to the boil.

Version 1: cover the pot and put it in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the meat mixture has rendered down nicely.

Version 2: bring to the boil and then simmer until the meat mixture has rendered down nicely. You’ll want to cover the wok/saucepan or you’ll see some evaporation happening.

BOTH VERSIONS: thicken with cornflour, and serve hot over corn chips or rice or pasta or whatever your carby poison happens to be.

1 serving = aroundabouts 3/4 cup.

Prepare yourselves for a rant.

I love cast iron. When I started cooking with it, at the beginning of last year, I declared that I would never ever use another frying medium. And, lucky for you, I’ve prepared a list of reasons why.

Please read on: if I can convert one person to the wonders of cast iron (and thus make your life easier) then my week will be made.

Here are a few common reasons that people do not cook with cast iron:

1. It requires seasoning.

2. It’s old fashioned.

3. It’s not non-stick.

Here are rebuttals to those three arguments:

1. You need only season your cast iron pans once or twice a year. In between, you can clean them with hot water (boiling, if you’re worried about germs and the like, but let’s be honest – not many of them would survive a rapid frying), or with a paste made of oil and salt if you have a stubborn mess. Then you simply dry it off and pop it back in the cupboard.

2. Yes, it’s old fashioned. Your grandmother probably cooked with it all her life. And for goodness’ sake, don’t you think there’s a reason it’s hung around so long? It is superior.

3. It is too non-stick! My dad explained, when I was first going on about how amazing my new pans were, that it’s a naturally non-stick surface. No, it’s not teflon-coated. It’s naturally non-stick. What this means to you is: a non-stick surface that you can use metal utensils on without fear of scraping. If you bust up the surface in any way, you can sand it down again and it’s still going to be non-stick.

More reasons to love the stuff:

4. It’s cheap! Some perma-season cast iron can be quite pricey, but the ones I use were so far within my student budget I couldn’t believe it. I paid $25 (that’s just over $20 USD) for three pans (10”, 6”, 4”). I also have a griddle that cost me $12 and a wok that cost me $15. I cannot believe the price of this stuff, especially given that it lasts a lifetime.

5. It lasts a lifetime. Everyone hates getting used to a new pan – different metals and surfaces conduct heat differently. Buy some cast iron ones, and it’ll be the last time you ever have to go through it.

6. It can go in the oven (assuming it has a cast iron handle as well). This was actually the main reason I wanted cast iron cookware. Being a complete omelette fanatic, I wanted to be able to grate cheese over my projects and throw them under the grill without worrying about the handle melting. This also means, of course, that you can use it for baking (see my cast iron skillet brownie! And don’t just see it, make it – it’s incredible).

7. It is more non-stick than any non-stick cookware I have used. If you were keen to test this theory, you could try making crepes – I pointed out in that blog entry that I had never been able to make decent crepes until I tried it with cast iron. I never have to oil my cast iron pan to make my spectacular crepes – they just lift right off once they’re done. Unbelievable. I think it’s something to do with the more consistent heat distribution you get using such a heavy pan.

Now, go forth and buy cast iron! Next time you need a pan, please consider it. You won’t regret it. Hell, your grandmother probably has a ton of spares you could swipe. And if she happens to have a waffle iron, do send it my way! It seems they’ve never existed in New Zealand – we only get those horrid electric things.

This dessert is insane. It’s saucey and chocolatey and perfect and almost entirely native to New Zealand and Australia. You’re gonna love it.

Unfortunately, it does NOT photograph well. I promise you it is delicious – in fact, despite being the easiest thing in the world to whip up, it remains one of my top three desserts. So please take my word for it, and just make it next time you need something quick for pudding. You will NOT regret it.

And having said that, I have been recipe testing this for ages now, and this is what I believe to be the Perfect self-saucing pudding (yes, many tastings were necessary).

What this pudding does, is it separates into three layers – cake on the bottom and cake on the top, and an incredible layer of silky smooth, ultra thick chocolate sauce in the middle. I don’t know how it does it – it’s a miracle, as far as I can tell. And for those of you who have never experienced it, it’s super impressive. It’s almost like a chocolate lava cake, except much easier and everything gets cooked through.

Also – no eggs. You could even make it lactose free by subbing oil in for the butter and water in for the milk.

85g butter
1.5 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3T cocoa
1/2 cup milk
a pinch of salt
3tsp baking powder
1/2tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup brown sugar
2T cocoa
1.25 cups boiling water

Melt the butter in a large microwavable bowl, and then stir in the other ingredients in that block (down to the vanilla essence) to make a nice, thick batter. Add the second measure of cocoa to the second measure of brown sugar and stir together well, making sure there aren’t any lumps of either. Sprinkle the mixtyre evenly over the surface of the batter, and then pour the boiling water over the top (if you pour it over the back of a spoon it disturbs the sugar mixture less, but this doesn’t matter too much).

Microwave on high for about 10 minutes, or until a cake-like crumb has formed in the top layer of the pudding.

And, if you hate microwaves, you can also fire this into the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Seeing as I wrote about ANZAC biscuits the other day, I thought I ought to continue the New Zealand theme and write about the latest disaster to hit New Zealand: the marmite famine.

Marmite is the best spread, in the world, ever. And the vast majority of non-New Zealanders hate it. They loathe and detest it. This is mainly because it has an extremely strong flavour. It claims to be a yeast spread but it doesn’t really taste like yeast. It does taste like something, but I’m not entirely sure what. It’s yummy, though.

Anyhoo, as you may have heard, a massive earthquake hit New Zealand in February of last year and on top of every other awful thing that resulted – it knocked over the Marmite factory. Sanitarium, who make marmite, didn’t say anything about this for yonks, until yesterday they released a press statement that essentially said: there’s two weeks worth of stock left, and after that, there’s going to be none until July.

So the country went mad, and now there is no stock left. Essentially, media hype created a marmite feeding frenzy because none of us want to be without it for three or four months. I checked, and I have half a 500g jar left, and I wanted to buy more – but by the time we went looking, at around seven last night, it was all gone.

To give you an idea of how amazing marmite is – when I went on exchange for a year, I dedicated 1kg of my 20kg suitcase weight to marmite.

I’m definitely going to be rationing my half a jar.

ANZAC biscuits are staple fare in New Zealand’s wartime history. Back in the day, when we were lumped in with Australia’s army regiments, servicemens’ wives used to send these all over the world in care packages, because they kept so well in the post. Besides that, they’re delicious! Their bases are oatmeal and golden syrup, and they’re super crispy and easy to make.

1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of coconut
3/4 cup of rolled oats
50 g of butter
1 T of golden syrup
1/2 tsp of baking soda
2 T of boiling water

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Melt the butter and the golden syrup in the microwave or a saucepan. Fling it in with the dry ingredients. Mix well, form in to balls and flatten with a fork on baking trays. Bake for 14 minutes or until the bottoms are golden.

This recipe is from the Edmond’s Cookery Book.

Note ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

I’ve never made cookies with brown butter before, but I suspect I may adjust all of my cookie recipes to use it from now on. It is DELICIOUS.

I’m not going to write out the recipe here, I’ll just link to it on this super yummy blog.

This one is DEFINITELY going in my go-to cookbook.

Ooh, and here’s a cool picture of the butter browning.

When I eat soup – and I eat soup a lot – it’s really about what I’ve got to dip in the soup. Usually, it’s regular toast soldiers, sometimes it’s a nice artisan type bread that I’ve made myself, and every now and then it is something extremely awesome like this.

We’ve been making an obscene amount of relish recently, and so I’ve introduced my boyfriend to the wonders of relish toasts (essentially, smother a piece of toast with relish, dump cheese on top and fling it in the oven until it’s crispy).

So one night I figured, why wouldn’t that work with toast soldiers?

So here’s the plan:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Toast some bread, don’t overtoast it so it’s brittle though. You want it to be still soft in the middle so you can cut it into pretty good soldiers without it breaking awkwardly.

Then, slather it with relish. How much is up to you … I like lots. Then, grate some cheese onto it.

Use a sharp knife to cut each piece of toast into four soldiers.

Arrange them nicely on an oven rack – because you’re using grated cheese, I recommend using a cooling rack type deal over a regular cookie sheet type deal. Otherwise, you’re gonna be scraping cheese out of your oven for the next week. And yes, you need the rack – this lets air circulate underneath them so they don’t go soggy on the bottoms.

Bake them for 10-15 minutes, or until they’re super crispy.

I found this recipe on The Kitchn, a website I am crazy about at the moment, and I did adapt it slightly both times I made it. It’s one of the best brownies of my entire life, and I honestly cannot get enough of it.

The first time I made it, I put a good handful of chopped and toasted nuts in (I use walnuts and almonds for everything). The second time I added nothing but dark chocolate, and it was still the best brownie I’ve tried, just dusted with icing sugar.

O, and you can do it in a regular brownie dish if you wish. Skillet really just looks cool.

Recipe:

1.25 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
a fairly liberal pinch of salt
1.5tsp espresso powder

110g butter
1.5tsp vanilla essence
1 cup brown sugar

1 egg
3/4 cup dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F).

Whisk the first four dry ingredients together while you heat your [10-inch] skillet on the stove. Once it’s nice and hot, chuck your butter in and melt it, along with the vanilla essence. Once everything in there is nice and liquid, toss in your brown sugar and melt it down into a kind of paste. The oil from the butter and the sugar solids might separate a bit – that’s alright.

Once it’s good and melty, chuck it in with your dry ingredients and beat it up. Get it good and mixed and then add your egg while the mixer’s running (you can do it without a mixer but you’ll want to wait for the sugar and butter mixture to cool so you don’t wind up with a fried egg in your batter). Finally, toss in the chocolate chips. They may melt and incorporate, or they may hang out separately. Either way, it’s gonna be a great brownie.

Beat everything up into a nice, thick batter, and then dump it back into the skillet (which will still be well greased from frying the butter), spread it out into a nice disk, and chuck it in the oven for around 25 minutes. It may take up to a half hour. You want a skewer in the middle to come out clean, or maybe with a few moist crumbs stuck on there.

Wait at least a half hour before serving – this way it’ll actually hold its shape, always a bonus.

Enjoy!