There wouldn’t be a mum out there who doesn’t secretly hanker for a decent breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day without the forced cheeriness brought about by having to swallow cold tea or thickly slathered vegemite toast. I well remember the year my children triumphantly brought in a tray of creamy scrambled eggs, huge melon-sized smiles on their faces. It was a triumph for them and memorable for me because it was so damned good.

That’s the problem if no one else in the family cooks. You have to eat whatever they come up with and be really polite about it. No wonder so many take their mums out for lunch to avoid disappointment.

Mother’s Day is two weeks away and it’s time to start dropping loud hints for gifts. Don’t tell me you don’t hint loudly, how else will you get that really nice piece of jewellery and not another macaroni necklace?

For those who would like to combine the best of all possible worlds, you could do a lot worse than ask for a copy of my book for Mother’s Day. Once opened, I strongly suggest you leave it lying around, open at the page of the meal you’d like cooked for you later that day. Or any other day of the year. After all, Mother’s Day should be every day, should it not?

So, to help give you a welcome break from cold tea, I have a personally dedicated book to give away for an awesome Mother’s Day present. If you can put up with my messy scrawl, I’m happy to write whatever name you want in time for you or your Mum to enjoy on Sunday 13th May.

Just write a comment below about your most memorable Mother’s Day (either from when you were a child or now as a parent) to be in the (computer generated random selector thingy) draw. The competition ends 7pm Wednesday 2nd May Eastern Standard Time to ensure it arrives in plenty of time for your big day.

Good luck everyone!

Beloved of MasterChef contestants everywhere, fondant potatoes are a simple combination of roasting or frying and steaming in a broth. The result is a tender and deliciously flavoured spud which is coated in a sticky glaze. It’s the perfect dish for those meals when you want  a variation from the usual scalloped potatoes or roast spuds to accompany a great meal.

Thereby lies the problem.

It’s so delicious it will quickly become one of your favourite ways to cook potatoes. Don’t be surprised if you get repeat requests for them. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Serves 4 as a side dish

INGREDIENTS

4 large potatoes, peeled; 50g butter; 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 cups (500ml) vegetable or chicken stock; fresh thyme or rosemary to serve; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Cut your potatoes into uniform shapes. There are several ways you can do this – I find cutting the edges away and reducing the shape to a clean-cut rectangle is the easiest. Another way would be to use a sharp cookie cutter to make a circular – barrel – shape.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large heavy-based fry pan over medium heat (not high) and when the oil is bubbling, add the potatoes. Cook for five minutes on each side until the potatoes start to turn golden brown but are still quite firm in the centre.

Pour the stock into the pan and reduce heat to low. Gently simmer the stock for about 20 minutes, turning the potatoes over half way through. As the stock reduces it will start to form a thick syrupy coating over the surface of the potatoes. This should happen in the last five minutes or so of cooking.

Turn the potatoes over in the syrupy stock a couple of times to completely glaze the surface, then serve with a sprinkling of thyme scattered over the top before graciously accepting the compliments of everyone around the table.

COST

$5.60 for four people as a side dish.

It has been my privilege to be able to take my children, then aged 12 and 14, to Anzac Cove in Turkey for the Anzac Day Dawn Service.  These days, nearly 10,o00 people attend the service and it is masterfully organised to reduce the impact of so many people  in such a small site.

It begins by being made to walk into the cove from the car parks which are a considerable distance away. Before you reach the beach head there is an array of security checkpoints where every bag is searched and where people then re-assemble themselves to dig out an Australian flag or two, pin some rosemary on their lapel, or in the case of a young women we were travelling with, to place her grandfather’s medals on her chest. Volunteers gave us each a dilly bag. In it was a program, a set of strict instructions about conducting ourselves in the midst of gravesites, and, rather evocatively, a large packet of Anzac biscuits.

It is a timely reminder that even now, there are mothers and families who are sending care packages to our soldiers in places of the world where I can definitely not take my children. There are mothers who wait for their sons to come home, wives and girlfriends who email and Skype their husbands, never quite knowing where they are, always being asked for decent food to be sent. Muesli bars and fruit roll ups are apparently very popular in rucksacks. I know. I’ve been chatting with a soldier in Afghanistan who tells me this. If you think cooking on a budget is a challenge, try cooking in a war zone.

This is for the fabulous Jewels, who very kindly  introduced me to her son, and who waits for her boy to come home.

Makes 24 chewy biscuits. Hard Anzac biscuits are un-Australian.

INGREDIENTS

The flavours you would normally pair with beef are mostly well-known and understood on our palates, but what happens when we venture into the unknown? What happens when you combine beef with paprika, red wine, oranges and dark chocolate?

Well, you could do far worse than rely on the knowledge of good Spanish cooks. This northern provincial  dish proves that far from being unhelpful bed-fellows, dark chocolate, orange and beef make for an amazing combination, with no one flavour dominating the other. It’s a really great departure from the usual. Don’t be afraid to try it.

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp olive oil; 1 kg chuck steak or gravy beef, cut into 4-5cm chunks; 2 tbsp plain flour; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 onion, diced; 2 large carrots, diced; 2 stalks celery, diced; 2 cloves garlic, finely diced; 1 x 400g tin whole peeled tomatoes; 2 or 3 large strips of orange rind, pith removed; juice of one large orange; 1 cup dry red wine; 1 litre beef stock; 2 tsp smoked paprika; 2 heaped tbsp baking cocoa

METHOD

Heat oil in a large heavy-based fry-pan over medium heat. Place meat in a plastic bag with flour, salt and pepper and shake to coat the meat. Brown, in batches if necessary, for a few minutes each side then place the meat in a slow cooker.

Return the fry pan to the heat and add onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Saute for five minutes until vegetables are well coated and starting to soften. Add to the meat in slow cooker. Add tomatoes, orange rind and juice to the slow cooker.

Return fry-pan to the heat and add red wine. While it is bubbling up, scrape the bottom of the pan to dislodge the crusted on bits. When wine is reduced by half, add stock, paprika and cocoa and stir until it comes to the boil. Pour into slow cooker.

Cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or HIGH for 4-5 hours.

If you don’t have a slow-cooker: Pre-heat oven to 160°C. Proceed with recipe as above, but place the meat and vegetables in a large casserole dish. Cover with a couple of sheets of foil or a tightly fitting lid and bake for 3 hours.

Serve with steamed potatoes and green vegetables.

COST

$15.75 for four people

Slow cooking. We love it. We love it so much that it’s impossible to believe that just a few years ago you would have been hard pressed to buy a slow cooker anywhere. They were out of fashion for so long, they only seemed to be available, old and round and my eyes! bright orange, in op shops.

Thankfully we have rediscovered them, and to make it even easier on our eyes, they have been brought bang up to date with sleek and shiny design upgrades.

But back to slow cooking – the concept alone wins hearts everywhere. If you are pressed for time, stuck for ideas or don’t rate yourself as a cook, slow cookers provide a welcome way to ease your load. Dump it in, set it and forget it. Even better, come home in the evening to a meal you can smell from the path leading up to the front door, needing nothing further than a quick stir and a glass of wine before you serve it up. Am I right?

Well, not exactly – there are a couple of tips worth knowing

• The single biggest problem with slow cookers is the risk that all meals taste and look the same. To avoid this, start the recipe off by browning the meat and veg in a conventional saucepan to get some depth of flavour for a few minutes, then pouring it into a slow cooker, scraped up crusty bits and all
• If you are cooking a curry or well-spiced dish, roast the spices first by dry-frying them in a small saucepan until they release their oils and start perfuming the kitchen, THEN add them to the slow cooker.
• You need to add enough liquid to cook the meal slowly but too much liquid can make the result too sloppy. Solve this by pouring the juices off into a saucepan in the last ten minutes and reduce the sauce down by half to thicken it up and boost the flavour
• Don’t waste your money buying expensive cuts of meat with little or no fat – slow cooking may actually toughen it up more than you would like. Cheap cuts of meat are the stars here, especially those that have streaks of muscle or fat running through them. Slow cooking reduces the meat to gelatinous goodness. Go for chuck steak, gravy beef, shin meat such as osso bucco or lamb shanks, rolled brisket, hangar or skirt steak, pork knuckles, ham bones or chicken maryland.

Anyway, anyway, anyway, that’s not the reason I started banging on about slow cookers in the first place, oh no. You see, thanks to the delightful and marvellously generous people at Kitchenware Direct, I have been test driving a new slow cooker for the best part of the week. Oh yes. I have a bright and shiny new Morphy Richards slow cooker baby and apart from the scrape of orange rind I threw into my new favourite beef casserole, there’s not a hint of orange in sight.

It’s big (a whopping 6.5 Litre capacity) making it perfect for the biggest lamb shoulder or leggiest ham bone you can throw in it. It has an instruction book that includes some rather nifty recipe ideas. It has a dial that allows for mid-range cooking times. And it sits right at home in any stainless steel kitchen your little heart desires.

Not only that, it comes with a two year warranty.

It’s big, it’s beautiful and it’s very well made. Oh and it came from Kitchenware Direct and I can’t begin to tell you how much I adore this company. They are a local online company made good, and with their excellent range of high quality products, competitive prices and brilliant and responsive customer service I don’t think I’ll ever buy a kitchenware product in a shop again. They asked me to go through their catalogue and choose an appliance to review so perhaps I shouldn’t say that I spent so much time drooling over the kitchenware  beauties that I short-circuited my keyboard. Oh I sooo did. And then, when I chose the slow cooker it arrived in less than 48 hours. BRILLIANT service and fast. You can’t argue with that.

I love my new slow cooker and Kitchenware Direct so much I want you to share the love and enjoy it as well. Thanks to Kitchenware Direct, I have a fabulous Morphy Richards 6.5L Slow Cooker to give away to a lucky reader. Oh yes!

And now, in classic spruiker style, allow me to say the immortal words – But wait, there’s more. (I really love saying that.)

The lovely peeps at McCormick Foods have given me a grab bag of goodies that are the perfect partner with your new slow cooker. As well as a slow cooker recipe book, the package includes more than a dozen different recipe base and spice mixes to add to your slow-cooked foods or to your barbecued meats, giving you lots of flavour ideas to make the most of your slow cooker.

The total prize value is – what else? – $120, including the slow cooker valued at a mighty $90.00.

To be in the running for this fantastic prize pack simply add a comment below (not the Facebook page please, it simply makes it more complicated to wrangle everyone’s entries) and include at least one of the following:

• Tell me why you would like to win this pack, OR
• Give me your best, killer, kick-arse slow cooker recipe, OR
• Give us a great cooking tip for making the most from using a slow cooker. Do you make jam in yours? Soup or baby food? Let us know.

You can comment and enter as many times as you want but because of postage costs, the prize can only be sent to an Australian residential address. Sorry ’bout that. The winner will be selected by a computer generated random selector thingy and notified by email.

The giveaway closes at 7pm on 27th April 2012 (Eastern Standard Time). So what are you waiting for? Get cracking!

This giveaway is proudly sponsored by Kitchenware Direct who very kindly gave me a Morphy Richards slow cooker to review and keep in addition to the fantastic giveaway for a lucky reader. The McCormick products were a separate giveaway to bloggers who attended a recent corporate event. 

And then there’s dessert.

The lovely Carol Duncan from ABC 1233 Newcastle called me and we chatted about using slow cookers and it was her enquiry that prompted this recipe. It is possible to make desserts, but you have to understand a little kitchen science to make it work well. Anything baked may have to be reserved for a conventional oven, where convected heat is a necessity, but certainly you can stew fruit, make eggy custards, bread and butter puddings, even silky cheesecakes.

This basic rice pudding was just begging for a slow-cooked adaptation. Using arborio rice and a similar method to making a risotto really helps the slow cooking process, but even so, this is not something you could leave bubbling away all day while you are at work. Five hours on low is just about your limit, or a little over 2 hours on high. Still, if your children are old enough, there’s no reason you couldn’t get them to switch it on when they get in from school.

Serves 4 to 6 people

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp butter; 1½ cups arborio rice; 3½ cups milk; 1 cup cream; 1 vanilla pod OR ½ tsp vanilla extract; ¼ cup caster sugar; 3 egg yolks

METHOD

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add the butter. Melt it then add arborio rice. Stir well to completely coat the rice grains.

Add the milk, cream and the scraped out seeds of the vanilla pod or the extract. Stir to combine. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar together and set aside.

Pour the rice and milk into the slow cooker and add the egg mixture. Stir well. If you want to, throw in the vanilla pod for extra flavour, but be sure to remove it when you serve up the finished dessert.

Cook on LOW for 4 hours or HIGH for 2 to 2½ hours.

Allow to cool slightly before serving with a dollop of jam or some crushed berries piled up in the centre of the dish.

COST

$5.50 using vanilla extract for four to six people

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She has a passionfruit vine, bursting with fruit. When I picked up my daughter from her overnight stay, a shopping bag of fruit was thrust at me. In my backyard, the lemon tree is bowed down with ripening fruit. Between the rain showers yesterday I picked an armful of lemons from the lowest branches and ran back to the kitchen, ready to make all manner of passionfruit and lemon inspired desserts, butters, marmalades and cakes. This is the first thing I made.

Makes 12 pieces.

INGREDIENTS

Base: 120g butter, softened; 60g icing sugar, sifted; ½ tsp vanilla essence; 185g plain flour, sifted; 1 tsp grated lemon zest

Filling: 100g plain flour; ½ tsp baking powder; ¾ cup desiccated coconut; 3 eggs; 1 cup caster sugar; pulp of 2 large (panama) passionfruit, or 4 small passionfruit OR 170g tin of passionfruit pulp; 2 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tsp grated lemon zest; icing sugar to dust.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 18 x 27cm baking tray with baking paper so that the edges of the paper hang over the two long sides.

Cream the butter and icing sugar with electric beaters until pale and creamy, then add vanilla. Fold in the flour and zest using a metal spoon. Press the dough into the base of the pan – it will be quite sticky – and smooth the top. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Filling: Sift the flour and baking powder together and add the coconut. Lightly beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl, then add passionfruit pulp, lemon juice and zest. Add the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Pour over the base and bake for another 20 minutes or until firm to the touch.

Cool in the tin, then dust with sifted icing sugar. Cut into 12 – 16 pieces.

COST

$6.25 for 12 to 16 pieces

Ricotta is loveliest when fresh, sweet and mildly scented and able to carry the flavours of whatever is paired with it. That said, some flavours can overwhelm which is why parmesan or cheddar is so often added to it to bolster the cheesiness. So when I tell you that you can take this basic recipe and add anything you want to it, do give it some consideration first. Mild cheese should be matched with mild flavours – chives or thyme rather than rosemary, a pinch of this, a dash of that. Put the bigger flavoured accompaniments on the side with some crusty bread or lavash crispbreads, such as roasted capsicum or smoky eggplant, some olives or hot salami.

Makes a 1 cup baked ricotta, enough for two as an entrée or light lunch, or as part of an antipasta platter.

INGREDIENTS

200g fresh ricotta; 1 egg, lightly beaten;  leaves from 2 sprigs thyme or lemon thyme; ½ mild green chilli, de-seeded and very finely chopped; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush the base and sides of a 1 cup ramekin with mild olive oil.

Place ricotta, egg, chives and chilli in a small bowl and mix well to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon ricotta mixture into the ramekin and press down well before smoothing the surface. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden and set. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool. Turn onto a platter and serve as part of a cheeseboard or antipasta selection.

COST

$2.70 for one small baked ricotta.

So with that out of the way, let’s get down to the business of simnel cake. Odd name, long tradition. This would have been routinely served to the court of Tudor kings and queens. They weren’t terribly nancy-ish about marzipan. Sentimentality gave it a Hallmark sense of occasion when it began to get trotted out for Mothering Sunday, the British mother’s day in March, but then it was appropriated about sixty years ago by Easter and it now gets served up on Easter Sunday, where it takes centre stage. The marzipan sits snugly over the top of the cake and by tradition has eleven egg-shaped balls around the edge. Why eleven? It’s a reference to the number of apostles at the last supper. Judas is omitted.

Given that we all love fruit cake in the Food Challenge community, I won’t have a hard time convincing you to give this recipe a go. No you don’t have to include marzipan, but with the cooler months approaching, there’s something very comforting about this cake with a cup of tea late on a wintry afternoon. It does fit right in. Do give it a try before you discount it right out of hand. Otherwise your Simnel Cake should simply be called a Why Bother fruitcake. It’s hardly the same.

Makes a 20cm round cake.

INGREDIENTS

175g butter, at room temperature; 160g (1 cup, loosely packed) soft brown sugar; 4 eggs; 250g (1 2/3 cups) self-raising flour; 1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp cinnamon; 1 tsp nutmeg; ½ tsp mixed spice; 750 g dried mixed fruit; 80ml (1/3 cup) milk; 2 x 250g packets marzipan (I used Aldi’s brand, but you can get it in all good supermarkets near the icing sugar and food colouring kits);  2 tbsp apricot or strawberry jam; sifted icing sugar

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C or 170°C fan forced. Line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with a double layer of baking paper. Use canola spray to gently fix the paper in place and allow the paper to reach a good 4-5cm higher than the top of the tin.

Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters until the mixture is soft and fluffy and a very pale caramel colour. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well between each addition. Add the golden syrup and beat well to combine.

Sift the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice well. Spoon the flour into the cake mixture and alternate with the milk until all is well combined. Add the dried mixed fruit and stir well.

Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth down with the back of a wooden spoon to make sure it goes right into the edges. Use the back of your spoon to create a small indent in the centre of the cake to allow for the cake to rise.

Bake for 40 minutes then turn the temperature down to 150°C or 140°C for a fan forced oven. Bake for a further 90 minutes until the cake is golden and a skewer pushed in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a cake rack before peeling off the paper.

Dust your rolling pin with sifted icing sugar or icing mixture as you would flour and roll out the marzipan into a large circle about 3cm thick. Trim the edges and set the trimmings to one side.

Heat the jam in the microwave for a few seconds until it is warm and spreadable, then brush it over the top of the cake. Place the disc of marzipan over the top. Dust your hands with icing sugar and using your flattened palm, rub the marzipan icing in a gentle circular motion to even out the lumps and gently stretch the icing to the edge. The white flecks of icing sugar will gently rub in and disappear.

Use a sharp knife to trim the edges so it comes just to the edge of the cake. Crimp the edge of the cake using your fingers. Roll the remaining marzipan and trimmings into 11 evenly sized balls about the size of marbles or maltesers. Arrange evenly around the edge of the cake, pressing down firmly to fix them in place.

Store in an airtight container, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge for up to two weeks.

It was my introduction to that quite American phenomenon of couponing.  Like compulsory tipping and drive-through weddings, I have looked on this as a quintessentially American pastime and wondered how it would work for me. I don’t yearn for foods in massively sized containers and, other than tomatoes, I doubt I would ever buy a 12-pack slab of canned vegetables.

Luckily, Coupon Codes have done a lot of the research for me on all kind of Australian coupons and their deals are great value for money. With a great choice of deals you can tailor it to suit your needs.

Right now I’m looking at the deals from Wine Market – with great discount codes for my next wine purchase of course I’m going to look at wine! Did you think I’d go for a takeaway pizza?

Specials on wine are always a great find – I don’t normally include it in the cost of my groceries but I love having a glass of good wine to complement my meal. If the wines are good quality and at a great price I’m always going to pay them close attention. It IS one of those things I would buy in bulk – a mixed dozen from here is going to give me more pleasure than anything a five litre bottle of barbecue sauce can provide.  At Wine Market, I’m salivating over a dozen Peter Lehman bottles of Back to Back Barossa Shiraz, all set to go for the big boofy meat casseroles I will be making over the winter months , but if big reds don’t do it for you, how about a case of chardonnay?

In Australia, with online coupon companies getting a foothold in our purchasing consciousness, it’s early days and we, the customer, are in a unique position to tailor it to our needs. I can’t ever envisage a time when we would sit down on a Sunday afternoon and cut out coupons, but I can well understand why online coupon companies are increasing their market share across the country. They have some great deals, whatever your budget. They may never make up the majority of your purchasing decisions as they do in so many american households, but they are certainly worth having a second look.