How to make Yoghurt

My latest batch of homemade yoghurt

Making yoghurt is one of the simplest things you will ever do. Trust me.

If you have a large family that loves the stuff, it will also be one of the most frugal things you ever do. Indeed, once you’ve got the process down, you can start getting them to take over from you.

The key to all of this is to remember that yoghurt has been around since the Stone Age.

It’s not complicated.

My latest batch of homemade yoghurt

Mind you, there’s a few things we do for safety now, that weren’t done then – and our implements look a little different – but it’s still pretty much the same. All of which means that it’s pretty much idiot-proof.

To make yoghurt, you will need milk (cow’s milk, goat’s milk, soy milk) and either culture or starter. This post will use starter.

Find a plain yoghurt you like and that can be your starter. Hard, isn’t it?

Okay, I’ve been told to be more serious. Ahem.

All yoghurts contain bacteria which have digested the natural sugars in the milk and helped to transform the proteins. (For more detail read Yoghurt 101.) When you decide that you wish to try making this all happen under your roof, you’ll need to start by getting yourself some yoghurt.

In the chiller section of the supermarket you will find myriad yoghurts ranging from low-fat to sugar-free and everything in between. What you need to look for is a small tub of natural yoghurt.

When you find one, look at the ingredients label. It should contain nothing more than milk, milk products and cultures.

Greek yoghurt label

If your label says live cultures, then that’s even better.

You don’t need anything that has stabilisers or food numbers on it. Those ingredients are used to thicken the final result. They often do not have the required numbers of bacteria in them and, if you were to use that product as your starter, you would end up with something that resembles cultured buttermilk and you would hate me forever. Don’t do that.

See the additives. Avoid. The blurring is the label, not my photography…

Also, be aware that Greek yoghurt is not only a type but is also a method of making yoghurt. Use it as your starter by all means, but it will not set firmly. If you prefer the taste of Greek yoghurts to those formed with L.acidophilus then make your yoghurt from it, but know that it will require straining to achieve the firmness of the yoghurt in the tub you have purchased.

This isn’t at all difficult, but you may wish to try something that will give setting satisfaction first. 😉

If you find locating something this simple and unadulterated difficult to do, then try using a packet mix yoghurt for your first shot and putting aside some of that as your starter. Be pragmatic.

Packet yoghurt mixes can be handy but not terribly economical…

As an aside, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with using powdered mixes like these. Just be aware that they also use stabilisers – which can exacerbate some allergies. Also, there is no budgetary advantage to doing so. A packet of yoghurt mix costs around AUD$4.50 as does a litre of yoghurt at the supermarket. A litre of milk costs $1 or so. If you have several children eating several kilograms of yoghurt a week, making your own from scratch is much more economical.

Yoghurt will last for quite some time when properly stored in a refrigerator, but you need your starter to be relatively fresh so check the dates on any fresh yoghurt you may buy.

Next, you will need to get your milk and equipment all in the one place.

You will need:

a large saucepan or pyrex jug,
a thermometer (or your clean finger),
a small bowl,
a dessertspoon,
a whisk or fork,
a large bowl or covered container,
something to keep your yoghurt warm in.

Make sure everything is as clean as possible. The only bacteria you want to grow is that in the yoghurt culture.

Now, heat your milk. If it is raw milk it is safest to bring it to a boil (at least 85°C or 180°F) and then let it cool to the desired temperature. If you do this on the stove top, use a large saucepan and watch it carefully to avoid having the milk boil over.

Otherwise, you can heat your already pasteurised milk in the microwave using a large Pyrex jug – which is my preferred method.

I heat my yoghurt in the microwave, using a large pyrex jug.

It’s much easier to wash up the jug, I find, and then pouring it into the container in which I want it to ferment is much easier than pouring it from a saucepan. One litre of milk straight out of the refrigerator needs only 3-4 minutes on HIGH in my microwave and then I can place it on my counter and wait for it to cool down.

Allow your milk to cool to between 47°C (116°F) and 32°C (90°F). You can use a thermometer to test this or wash your hands and use a finger – since the Stone Ages, remember? – dip in a finger and count to ten, the milk will feel uncomfortably hot, but bearable.

This is important. Yoghurt bacteria are like yeast. Too hot and the bacteria will die, too cold and they will remain dormant.

While you are waiting for your milk to cool, place two dessertspoons of your starter culture into a small bowl. A good rule of thumb is one dessertspoonful (2 teaspoons) of starter for each 500ml of milk.

Pace your starter culture into a small clean bowl.

Then, when your milk has cooled sufficiently, place half a cup or so into the bowl and whisk well.

You want the result to be quite smooth.

Blend your culture thoroughly into a small amount of warmed milk.

It won’t break, there’s no need to be delicate.

Blend well.

Now reintroduce the liquid in the bowl to the rest of the warmed milk, again blending well.

Introduce your culture mix to the rest of the milk and blend well.

You’re pretty much done. Now all you need to do is maintain the temperature for 6 to 8 hours. My mother used to put the mix in a bowl with its own lid, wrap it in a towel and place in on the internal water heater overnight. I know some people swear by placing their yoghurt into an oven with just the pilot light on.

You could place it into a thermos or vacuum flask.

Some place their heated milk into a preheated crockpot or slowcooker. To do this preheat your slow cooker on High but switch it off when you add your yoghurt mixture and then wrap the whole thing in a towel overnight.

You could place your sealed container into a foam insulated box, esky, cooler box or chilly bin with a filled hot water bottle for company.

I use a commercial yoghurt making device that is a simple, plastic-covered foam flask.

The yoghurt ‘flask’

I place my yoghurt mix into a plastic container with a screwtop lid, half fill the flask with boiling water, pop the container in, put on the lid of the flask and leave it overnight.

You simply half fill it with boiling water.

Add boiling water and then your yoghurt mixture.

I like using this because it’s so convenient. Firstly, I can simply take the set yoghurt out in the morning, wipe off the container and put it in the fridge as it is. Secondly, the flask itself takes up very little room and can be popped in a corner, on the dining table or anywhere else with very little trouble.

I will be offering one of these in a competition for my readers in the next few days.

I also like not having large containers of warm liquid to juggle (and most likely spill everywhere).

It is far better to make smaller amounts of yoghurt often, rather than large amounts infrequently. Your yoghurt depends on the freshness of the starter culture so, if you keep your own stocks ticking over, you will be able to continue using your own yoghurt as a starter for longer.

It’s also easier to cope with a litre or two at a time in your refrigerator than it is to cope with a gallon of it. Trust me.

Make up your yoghurt of an evening and it will be ready for the refrigerator first thing in the morning. Try not to leave it to ferment for any longer or it will become quite sour. Go about your day and let it set – leave it alone.

That evening it will be ready for you to strain off the whey, divide for portable lunches or breakfasts, flavour or use in other recipes.

Just remember to put a few spoonfuls aside to start off your next batch!

You may wish to enrich your yoghurt with milk powder or cream. This isn’t necessary, but it can give you a much firmer yoghurt. I shall include instructions for how to do this in the recipe below, but plain old milk is fine. 🙂

I will be posting a few ideas for how to use your yoghurt in the near future.

How to make Yoghurt

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

I litre fresh milk

¼ cup skim or full cream milk powder

1-2 tablespoons fresh commercial yoghurt

Method

Rinse all equipment in boiling water to sterilise.

Heat-proof glass mason jars with loose fitting lids are ideal for incubating and storing your yoghurt.

Pour milk into a saucepan and then blend in the powdered milk until thoroughly dissolved.

Bring gently to a boil.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool until tepid – 45°C.

Place your culture into a small bowl and add ½ a cup of your cooled milk. Blend well with a fork or a whisk.

Reintroduce this mixture to the rest of your heated milk. Again, stir well.

Pour the culture mix into an incubating container and keep warm for at least 6 hours.

Do not disturb your yoghurt while it is setting!

When the yoghurt is set it will have a thin layer of clear, yellowish liquid surrounding it. This is whey and is perfectly normal (and edible).

Place your containers into the refrigerator to cool and set more firmly.

When you wish to eat the yoghurt, you may stir in the whey (it is high in protein) or strain.

Reserve several tablespoons of your yoghurt to act as your starter in your next batch.

Looking for things to make with your yoghurt? Try these:

Frozen yoghurt

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Yoghurt 101

A Potted (Yoghurt) History

Yoghurt is a food that has been with us for millennia – at least since we started collecting milk from animals and storing it for any length of time.

It’s a foodstuff that started out big in Central Asian cultures back in the Neolithic (ah, the good old days!) and which has really only spread into the Western world since the 1900s.

I know. Weird, eh?

Coz it feels like it’s always just been a thing.

Basically, someone (somewhere) kept some milk at a warm enough temperature that the bacteria it carried started to multiply and change the proteins of the milk. They then tasted it and decided it was good.

They were right.

Make your own yoghurt in next to no time.

What is yoghurt?

It’s highly nutritious and endlessly delicious. High in protein, tolerated well by people who may usually have difficulties with ingesting dairy products and full of microbes that may help a gut worn down by living and digesting in the modern world.

That last bit, my friends, means that eating yoghurt can help you, as a denizen of the modern-day, get some of your zing back while adding a tang to your diet.

It’s also incredibly easy to make – takes me 5 mins work and a few hours waiting – and can be made at a marked saving from buying commercially produced stuff.

Which is also good, because you can never be quite sure just what is in that tub of yoghurt you’ve just brought home from the supermarket, especially when food numbers get involved.

SAfety concerns

This last bit is really very important. Milk naturally contains many different types of bacteria – there are the ones that make yoghurt and there may also be the ones responsible for listeria, salmonella, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria, brucellosis, and Q-fever as well as your good, old-fashioned e coli. Milk is a highly pathogenic liquid, keep it warm enough and all of those bacteria will grow – right alongside the beneficial bacteria that turn it into yoghurt.

In Australia, all commercial milk is pasteurised to render these bacteria harmless and thereby extend the life of the milk and protect the population from preventable diseases.

So, in ancient times, one could simply have left a bowl of milk somewhere warm and it would have become yoghurt all on its own without any real human intervention. Equally, it could have turned into yoghurt with a strong TB flavour and just a soupçon of salmonella. This can also happen today with raw milk.

All raw milk must be heated to kill the native bacteria. Boil it and then cool before adding your culture.

Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt

Why make your own?

Umm…because?

Yoghurt is one of those things that can save you a small fortune if you are a large user. A litre of milk costs $1 in many supermarkets at the moment and a kilogram of plain, natural or Greek yoghurt can cost between $4 and $5.

Flavoured and diet yoghurts often contain more stabilisers and sweeteners than they do actual nourishment in the form of milk proteins.

Check out this video from our wonderful consumer advisers at the ABC’s The Checkout.

Apart from the sugar or artificial sweeteners, you are also looking at maize thickeners, and other thickeners made with soy-based lecithin, agar agar (406) and caraganeen(407). Not to mention a whole host of other things I could not hope to cover adequately here.

Note the numbers on this supposedly natural yoghurt.

These are often added to low or no fat yoghurts to remediate the texture of the product once the fats have been removed. The fat gives it the thick creamy texture that feels so good in your mouth, remove that and it becomes a somewhat thinner liquid with a greatly diminished taste.

However, if you make yoghurt with skim milk there are other ways to make it thicker without adding emulsifiers or stabilisers – and I will show them to you.

This is what the ingredients list on natural yoghurt should look like:

Greek yoghurt label

As you can see it contains milk, milk products and some latin words which name the cultures it contains.

You can use this yoghurt to make your own at home. You can then go on to make flavoured yoghurt for school lunches etc.

How to make your own yoghurt.

In order to make your own yoghurt, you need milk. This can be Cow’s milk, goat’s milk or even Soy Milk. You may wish to enrich your milk by adding cream or well-dissolved powdered milk.

You also need cultures. The four main commercial bacterial strains used in this country are: Lactobacillus acidophilis, L. bifidus, L. thermophilus and L. bulgaricus.

The last two are most often seen together in Greek yoghurts.

You can buy cultures online, or you can buy a tub of natural yoghurt at your supermarket and use a few spoonfuls of that. The fresher the culture the better your chances of achieving a good set.

You will need something to heat your milk in, something to measure the heat of the milk with and something to store your yoghurt in as it ferments.

Basically, you warm your milk, stir in the culture and leave it to sit overnight.

So, you will also need either a warm place or a way to maintain the heat of your yoghurt for at least 6-8 hours.

My mother used to mix her yoghurt in a bowl, wrap it in a towel and place it on the (internal) hot water heater overnight.

You could place your yoghurt in a thermos or vacuum flask, in a small foam cooler with a hot water bottle, you might even use a slow cooker turned to low, or place it in the oven with just the pilot light on. There is no need for fancy electronic yoghurt-making gadgets that make it all seem so very difficult. Really, truly.

The yoghurt ‘flask’

I actually use a yoghurt maker that is nothing more than an insulated flask. It’s meant to be used with powdered yoghurt-making mixes, but works just as well with the technique I will describe in my next post (this one has been long enough!).

Add boiling water and then your yoghurt mixture.

I’m planning on giving one of these away shortly, so stay tuned. There will also be quite a few posts to come which will show many different uses of your yoghurt that go beyond a breakfast item.

My latest batch of homemade yoghurt

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Basics – How to boil an egg

Egg cups don't have to be fancy and can help build vocabulary...

If someone had told me a year ago that I would be writing about boiling eggs, I should have declared them mad, MAD I tell you!

I hated boiled eggs with a passion. The smell mostly. The texture of the whites was also quite off-putting.

Apparently, it all harks back to when I was an infant and my mother was advised to feed me coddled eggs. In our particular case it was a raw egg, just heated.

Eww.

However, I decided a year or so ago that I was now quite a long way from being an infant and really should demonstrate my adulthood and try again.

It took quite some time to find a method that worked and didn’t result in broken shells, or rubbery eggs. Or stink the house out.

Mind you, I still can only palate them if they are accompanied by Vegemite toast.

Anyway, here goes. This method is the one I have settled on. It results in much less – ahem – aroma and the shell stays intact until I want it broken.

I keep half a dozen eggs on my counter in a cute little china egg carton thingy I found at 70% off in a kitchen wares shop.

A frippery.

This way, I always have a room temperature egg to begin with (reduces risk of breaking) as well as some ready for spur-of-the-moment baking.

If you live in America, this may not be advisable, read this article for why. If you wish to have one for breakfast though, try making a note to get one out of the fridge the night before…

So, place your egg in a small saucepan and cover with tepid water.

Cover your egg with coldish water

Place the lid on your saucepan and bring it to a boil.

Once it reaches boiling point, and by this I mean a nice rolling boil and not just a simmer, take the whole thing off the heat. Put your saucepan elsewhere and leave the lid on.

Set a timer for three minutes, for well set whites and soft but not runny yolks. If you are having toast, put it on to cook now. 🙂

When your timer goes off, retrieve your egg from the water. The water will still be hot. Please be careful. Sigh.

I bought myself this rather nifty scoop from Kmart for $2. It saves my fingers every time. I scoop my egg out and roll it into a waiting tea towel – because it’s HOT.

Scoop out the egg.

I place the scoop straight into the cutlery holder to dry and simply empty the saucepan and place it onto the rack to drain. If you wish to do the full washing up thing with them though, then by all means feel free…

Now you can go about getting into your egg however you want. I’m going to describe my boiled egg ritual for those who are also uncertain and for those who know nothing of this strange foodstuff.

I’ve invested in a few ‘egg only’ gadgets in the last year. I’m quite clumsy with my MS and that often doesn’t exist comfortably alongside delicate items like, oh I don’t know…eggs, maybe? Hot eggs?

Egg cups don’t have to be fancy and can help build vocabulary…

Also, I had that whole not liking them thing and anything to make the process more pleasant really helped me get over the ick factor.

And I can work eBay. ‘Nuff said.

So, I pop my egg into an egg cup that I got from the great emporium that is Kmart and then cut off its top with this egg topper thing that makes the world a nicer place to be – especially first thing in the morning.

My MS-proof egg topper

It basically cracks the shell all the way around, without piercing the egg itself,

enabling you to insert a knife into the break and cut the top off, without getting shell all the way through your egg.

This is important to the boiled egg phobic amongst us. Really.

Once my egg has lost its cap,

My ideal 3 minute egg

I remove it from the shell using a little egg spoon I found on the aforementioned eBay.

That would be the one on the left. It fits perfectly inside the shell, scooping out the egg easily without crushing the shell to pieces and getting it all through the egg.

One shell without its egg

I’m sure you could just eat the egg straight out of the shell with it, but I use it to scoop the whole thing out and put it on my plate with my toast. Then I mash it onto my toast with a fork.

Because I can.

Breakfast: Boiled egg and Vegemite toast fingers.

You may wish to dip your toast fingers (soldiers) into a runny soft boiled egg. Try only cooking it for 2 minutes.

Experiment to find the timing that works best for you. Larger eggs will take longer to cook, as will eggs that are straight out of the refrigerator; you be the judge.

If you want a hard-boiled egg for a cold lunch, cook it for at least 4 mins and then put it into a bowl of cold water immediately afterwards. It will be a lot easier to peel and not have that green circle around the yolk that happens sometimes.

Oh… and if you happen to be eating on your deck and then you happen to end up with just a touch of Vegemite on your fingertip, then I suggest sharing it with your cat¹. The B vitamins are great for their coat – and their tongues tickle.

Truffles’s daily vitamins.

Good kitty.

¹I’m sure this will work just as well for dogs.

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Sugar Body Scrub

A non-food item from the Budget Bounty kitchen today.

Two reasons:

It’s too hot, and
I’m tired of cooking.
So there.

Instead, here’s something to contribute to a bit of self-pampering. It’s also a great DIY gift idea for kids to make for future Christmas or birthday gifts.

Sugar Scrub…

A few years back, sugar scrubs were on sale everywhere.

A few years back I was wondering why anyone would buy something that was so simple and inexpensive to make…

At this time of year skin suffers.

Whether you are in the summer of the Southern Hemisphere, or in the winter of the Northern Hemisphere, you are more than likely to be having some dry skin issues right about now. Dull, itchy skin does not a good holiday season make.

Take a few minutes and some affordable ingredients and make yourself a nice exfoliating/moisturising scrub for your morning tub.

All you need is some sugar and some Sorbolene.

Really truly.

Sorbolene is a great all-round moisturiser as well as often being recommended for treating dermatitis and eczema. It is quite affordable and I can usually buy mine in 2 litre bottles for less than AUD $10. These bottles last for years at a time…

It also works far better here than more expensive lotions. These tend to separate; you will end up with a container half-filled with a concrete-like sugar substance and half-filled with water.

Don’t do that.

Get yourself a container in which to put some sugar. You want something with a wide mouth that you can fit your hand into. I use an old Tupperware microwave container, but a wide-mouthed jar or a plastic takeaway container would also do.

A very old Tupperware microwave container.

Whatever you choose, make sure it has a tight-fitting lid. This will be living near your shower if you are anything like me, and you will be wanting to keep it relatively water free.

Fill your container ¾ full of plain, white, table sugar.

Put some sugar into your container.

Now, if you wish, you might want to add a few drops of essential oil. I don’t particularly like the smell of Sorbolene, so a few drops of a scented oil make this a much nicer product for me.

Don’t compromise and use any old scented ‘oil’ that you’ve spent mere dollars on here. Essential oils are expensive, but you use them a drop or two at a time and they will last for years if stored correctly. In my small collection I have a bottle that I’ve had for 20 years; it’s only half full now but still smells as wonderful as the day I bought it.

Go to a local health food shop or similar and look at the range – both scents and prices. A lavender oil isn’t going to cost you as much as a Damascus Rose oil, and Peppermint Oil will cost even less.

It’s up to you which scent you get. Do a bit of research on aromatherapy using the interwebz, if that’s something you think you’d like to pursue. One school of thought has it that citrus scents help us to wake faster and feel happier, so if you are a morning grump some grapefruit oil in your morning shower scrub might help you along…

My little stash of essential oils.

Also, be aware that some oils may interfere with medications when absorbed through the skin and some should not be used in certain situations such as pregnancy. Check with the person you are buying them from.

If you can’t make up your mind, try sandalwood oil. It’s a nice starting scent and has been used as a perfume since forever (actual archaeological term).

So, shake a few drops of oil onto your sugar. I mean a few. These oils have a very strong scent.

Add a few drops of scented oil to your sugar if you wish.

You’ll be able to see the oil against the sugar as in the photo above.

Use a fork to break up the lump that will form with the oil and mix it through the rest of the sugar.

Now add your Sorbolene a tablespoonful at a time, mixing thoroughly with your fork.

Add your Sorbolene bit by bit…

It will start to come together. Continue adding the lotion until you have something that resembles toothpaste in consistency.

You’re looking for something that looks like a gritty toothpaste.

And you’re done.

If you are making it as a gift, feel free to add some food colouring to pretty it up a bit. See the pic at the top where my hand slipped and too much colouring went in…

To use, simply get under the shower and apply by rubbing onto your wet skin. The sugar will exfoliate and remove any rough or dry skin patches and the sorbolene will trap moisture and leave you feeling silky smooth all day.

The best part is that you won’t have to skimp on using it because it is so simple and affordable to make!

This scrub can also be made using oil instead of Sorbolene, but that will add considerably to the cost and may make your bath/shower quite slippery and dangerous for you (or anyone who uses it after you!).

You may also wish to try using table salt instead of sugar. This is NOT something that everyone could tolerate. Make a small test sample and try it somewhere that isn’t too sensitive before you go making a big batch for all over use.

You have been warned.

And a brief reminder, this is a Body scrub. It’s not advised to use this on the delicate skin of the face…

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Cranberry-Almond Quinoa Pilaf

Cranberry Almond Pilaf

I’m posting this particular recipe in response to a request from my Dad, although I do hope everyone else likes it too.

It’s not really a pilaf in the strictest sense of the word – rice cooked in broth with other things then added – but it does resemble it and I’ll settle for that.

Cranberry Almond Pilaf

It contains an ingredient that seems to be one of the trendiest on the planet at this point in time, but I first learned about it in the early 1990s.

Not that I could find it anywhere, of course. Now it’s on the supermarket shelves. How times change.

I’m talking about Quinoa, an ancient South American grain that is unique in its nutritional profile.

Quinoa in the raw

But before I go on, let’s address a matter of some importance…how to pronounce it.

Keen-wa.

Ok? Got it? Good.

If I hear anyone saying kwin-oh-ah, I’ll slap them.

Quinoa, as I was saying, is a little famous at the moment. It is a seed that has been in cultivation for thousands of years, but only commercially so for a very short time. Which explains its cost (more on that later).

Remarkably it is a source of complete protein, which makes it extremely valuable to vegans and vegetarians. It is gluten-free and rich in dietary fibre, magnesium and iron as well as being a good source of calcium – very handy for the lactose-intolerant.

It comes in white, black and red versions. I prefer the white, but that’s just me.

Teeny, tiny seeds

It also tastes good, is easily digested, low GI and incredibly easy to prepare.

It’s not a large commercial crop though, and is on the pricey side. At my local supermarket it comes in at $2 per 100g or $10 for a half kilo (500g) bag. Bear in mind that it behaves somewhat like rice in that it swells when cooked, so one cup of quinoa will yield 2½ – 3 cups of it cooked. It can also be used in recipes that call for rice and I have made several quite successful risottos with it.

Please note that, even at that price, this entire recipe will still only cost you around AUD 4.50.

Cooked Quinoa.

Unlike rice, it will give a large nutritional bang for your buck (see above) and not give you just calories and carbohydrates.

This dish is one I like to take to gatherings that require one to “bring a plate.” It’s simple, it has only three and a bit ingredients, it travels well, it caters for the gluten and lactose intolerant as well as vegetarians, it’s served cold and can often provide a talking point as everyone tries to work out (a) what it is and (b) how to pronounce it. HINT: Keen – Wa

Ahem. Moving on.

This dish is great for Christmas gatherings in Australia too as the colours of the craisins are very much of the season and the coolness of the dish is wonderful on stinking hot days.

Enough. Let’s cook.

The first, and most important, step is to wash your quinoa. It’s also the trickiest. Quinoa seeds have a chemical in their coating called saponin. It is quite bitter and may not all be removed on the way from the field to your kitchen. Wash it.

This can be difficult to do as the seeds themselves are tiny. Really small. Think the tip-of-a-ball-point-pen small.

The quinoa is only a little larger than the holes in my finest mesh sifter.

The quinoa is only a little larger than the holes in my finest mesh strainer.

They are easily washed through the holes of any sieves you may own. I have found myself a strainer with a very fine mesh that saves me from dumping the lot down the drain with the water. You may find that your current strainer works with the addition of a lining piece of paper towel, cheesecloth or a clean Chux.

Line your sieve so you don’t lose your quinoa.

Place your quinoa in a bowl and cover with water, agitating gently. The water will turn cloudy, like this:

First rinse.

Drain through your sieve, return to the bowl and continue the process until the rinse water looks clear, like this:

The same bowl, two rinses later.

It will only take two or three turns.

While you are doing this, three-quarter fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to the boil. By the time the boiling point is reached, your quinoa will be clean and can be added all in one go to the pot. There is no need to add salt.

Set a timer for 15 minutes and just let it cook, stirring occasionally.

Let it cook at a roiling boil.

At the end of the 15 mins, drain it. You’ll notice that the seed has separated from its husk. Don’t panic, those aren’t worms through it. And yes, I have actually been asked this!

Cooked quinoa.

Run a fork through the seeds in order to facilitate proper draining as quite a bit of water can become caught. Leave it to cool thoroughly.

Now place your quinoa in a bowl and drizzle with a good glug of olive oil – as much or as little as you want.

Add your craisins (dried cranberries) and stir through.

Add the cranberries.

Now heat a small frypan and gently toast your slivered almonds. Toss or stir them constantly as they will burn quite easily. You will know when they are done when they are a gorgeous tanned colour and the smell is simply mouth-watering…

I use a little egg pan for toasting my nuts.

Add to your bowl, mix through and serve.

Isn’t it purdy?

This will keep happily in the refrigerator for at least three days. You’ll find the colour of the dried cranberries will ‘bleed’ into the quinoa, which just makes it look even prettier for my money.

Apart from being ideal for gatherings, it’s also a great packed lunch option. Make up a batch on the weekend to be taken to work or school during the week to come.

Whatever you do, resist the urge to add anything more to this dish. It looks as though it needs something, but it really doesn’t. I added some parsley to it once and regretted it immensely. If you really can’t help yourself, then I would suggest some very finely grated lemon or orange zest. Then stop.

Cranberry-Almond Quinoa Pilaf

Servings: 6-8
Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

1 cup (185g) quinoa

½ cup dried cranberries (craisins)

¼ cup slivered almonds

olive oil.

Method

Rinse the quinoa well until the water is clear. This will remove any bitterness.

Fill a large saucepan ¾ full with water and bring to the boil. Add the rinsed quinoa and cook at a rolling boil for 15 minutes.

Drain the quinoa thoroughly and cool. It is helpful to stir the draining seeds with a fork to release any trapped pockets of liquid.

Place the cold quinoa in a large bowl and add a glug of olive oil to taste. Stir through.

Add the craisins and mix through.

Toast the slivered almonds until lightly brown, either in a frypan or in the oven on low heat. Watch them carefully as nuts burn easily. Toasted nuts smell fragrant.

Add the nuts to the pilaf and serve.

Will keep for several days in the refrigerator.

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Low-Fuss Macaroni and Cheese (Slow Cooker)

I think I mentioned some time ago that I lived in Texas for a bit and that, when I was there, I cooked mostly with a little 1.5 litre (1 Quart) slow cooker.

Many wonderful things emerged from that device (and were eaten with gusto), but one that I still continue to make is Mac and Cheese.

Now, during my residency of San Antonio, I discovered that Americans have a plethora of magazines devoted to slow cookers and slow cooking – it was quite startling just how many there were when I’ve yet to see one such thing here in Oz. No doubt we will soon catch up given that Diabetes specific magazines are appearing here now too and they had oodles of those.

Remember the Alamo.

Anyway, I bought one or two and was off. It was in one of them that I discovered that Macaroni and Cheese could be prepared all-in-one-pot and cooked slow. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my copies of the magazines back with me (excess luggage dontchaknow) so I can’t attribute this with an original source. However, I have fiddled with it and made it often enough now that I can honestly say that I don’t think it actually resembles the original all that closely.

The original held something called Velveeta – which didn’t agree with me at all, and several cheeses containing the word “Jack” in their names. This is another American phenomenon that has yet to reach our supermarkets (along with the orange food colouring in cheeses!)

So, here is my low fuss version of Mac and Cheese à la Slow Cooker. The recipe I will give you to print at the bottom of the post will contain specific instructions for making it in a 5 litre slow cooker and will make enough to serve a very hungry family. Probably with leftovers.

The photographs, however, will be of my current (Australian-wired) 1.5 litre slow cooker being used to make a smaller amount. The process is the same, as are the results, but the two of us do NOT need several weeks worth of leftovers!

Also, what you see will not have been measured precisely. I tend to do this using the patent-pending Sharon’s Handfuls method of measuring, other wise known as a handful of this and a handful of that.

Let us begin.

To the bottom of your crock add your uncooked pasta. This may be elbows, it may be spirals or it may even be tiny tubes – think macaroni rather than spaghetti and you’ll be fine.

Place your uncooked macaroni in the crock

Next, add your cheese. This may be one type of cheese or a mix of several. This is a dish that lends itself well to using up the odds and ends of cheeses that may be lurking in the corners of your refrigerator. In the past I have used mixes including cheddar, fetta, parmesan, edam, gouda, brie, camembert, mozzarella and once I included a smidgen of a blue cheese. (Which doesn’t mean that I used all of these at once!)

I would limit your choice of cheese to one strong-tasting one among other milder flavours or you may find yourself with something that smells too confusing to eat.

You have been warned.

Plain old cheddar works fine, so don’t panic if that’s all you’ve got. The recipe calls for grated and cubed, I had pre-shredded cheeses in my fridge so that’s what I used – along with a good twist or two of black pepper and a sprinkling of paprika.

Add your cheese and seasonings.

Now, cover your mixture with milk. This may be cow’s milk, goat’s milk, soy milk, almond milk – get my drift? Pasta cooks in liquid and it doesn’t much care what that liquid is. In my baby slow cooker I tend to use a tin of evaporated milk and then add enough of whatever milk is in the refrigerator to cover the pasta.

That’s the important bit. You want your pasta to be completely submerged.

Cover with milk.

Now cover it and cook it on low for 2 to 3 hours. It doesn’t take that long in a tiny slow cooker, so keep an eye on it.

After 30 mins or so, you’ll notice your cheeses melting.

Melting cheeses…

This is good and eminently desirable. Keep up the good work. If you feel the need to stir, then do so. This dish is quite forgiving and will let you remove the lid once or twice without slowing things down immensely.

When your pasta is cooked to your liking, serve it up.

All done.

I, however, like to fiddle. I also am very much of the meal-in-a-bowl school of catering. So I always add stuff to my mac and cheese.

This is not mandatory.

If you have them, frozen peas can add a change of texture as well as a burst of both flavour and colour – as can frozen corn. The heat of the dish will thaw them so there is no need to cook separately first. Use whatever vegetables you have to hand.

Asparagus has just come into season here, so I cut two stalks up and stirred them through my pot. Asparagus is best cooked lightly and here it steamed in the heat of the pasta.

A stalk or two of asparagus adds a touch of colour and a burst of flavour.

I also had two lonely continental frankfurters sitting in my fridge and – as they, too, just need reheating and not cooking – sliced them up and popped them in.

Some sliced frankfurters

I prefer to use fewer of these more expensive frankfurters, instead of more of a cheaper hot dog, as I like the taste and texture better. The flavour is head and shoulders above that of a hot dog and the filling doesn’t have that ‘mushy’ texture you often get in hot dogs. It’s one of those cases where it is absolutely worth spending more to buy less – but you’ll be so much more satisfied with the finished dish.

Feel free to use whatever you have to hand to add flavour and nutrition to your dish. For a vegetarian option, try adding half a tin of drained chickpeas.

Anyway, mixed through and plated up, our meal looked like this, and it was glorious. Given that it was put together at the last minute on what had turned into a very cold and gloomy day, it was ‘perfick’.

Slow cooker mac and cheese with extra added flavour and colour.

This is very filling. Trust me. Serving sizes do not need to be large.

Should there be any left in your slow cooker after plating your meals, then remove it immediately into a storage container for refrigeration. Then fill your crock with hot water and a squirt of dishwashing liquid before you sit down to eat. The slight delay will save you a world of frustration.

If you let the macaroni cool in the pot, it will set solid as melted cheese tends to do. This makes it a little more difficult to divide into … lunch containers for work the next day, just say…

Also, cheese can be difficult to clean off pots. By soaking it you will be getting a head start on the washing up and making the process a lot easier when you get to it.

Low Fuss Macaroni and Cheese (Slow Cooker)

Servings: 6-8
Time: 2-3 hrs
Difficulty: easy
Print

Ingredients:

2 cups (250 g) uncooked elbow macaroni

250 g light cheddar cheese, cubed

250 g tasty cheddar cheese, grated

500ml milk

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

In a 5 litre slow cooker, combine macaroni, cheeses and seasoning.

Cover with the milk.

Put the lid on the pot and cook on LOW for 2 to 3 hours, stirring after 20 minutes.

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Hidden Treasure Muffins

Allow to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.

So, you’ve made yourself some Dulce de Leche, or even some Lemon Curd – now what?

Make these.

Simple, tasty, made from things you’re likely to have already and hiding a sweet(er) surprise, what’s not to love about these morsels?

You know you want one.

A batch or two of muffins mixed up on a Sunday afternoon and stored in an air-tight container can provide you with a week’s worth of school/work lunch treats. That can save you quite a bit of money over the medium to longer term, especially if you provide your own beverage as well.

They taste better than most mass-produced cakes (there’s a certain floury taste to things made from a premix) and you get to look mysterious when people beg you to tell them where you bought them…

Get picky. Eat only the best, and that usually means things made from scratch – it doesn’t mean things that are too difficult to make yourself. I promise.

These particular muffins make use of things you’ve already learned how to make here: dulce de leche and/or lemon curd.

Before I start to guide you through it, though, just a quiet word. Muffins are sensitive souls. They need a gentle touch – one that will let them know they are loved and then leave them alone…

In other words, don’t overmix them!

As soon as all the flour is incorporated, stop. Just stop. That is all.

Treat them gently, and you too could have a platter that looks like this.

A veritable treasure trove.

If you do happen to overmix them, it simply means your muffins won’t rise as much and will be slightly denser in texture.

This is not a tragedy.

This is a reason to try again and see if you can improve your results.

Shall we begin?

Preheat your oven to Moderately Hot.

Start by sifting your Self Raising flour and baking soda together into a large mixing bowl.

Add your brown sugar, but be careful to pack it into your measuring cup first! When you tip it into the mixing bowl it will look like those sand castles you used to make with your bucket at the beach.

This is a brown sugar sandcastle.

Mash it up with your spatula or wooden spoon to get rid of lumps and stir into the flour.

How are you doing so far?

Believe it or not — you’re nearly done!

Melt your butter. This can be done in a small saucepan over a low heat on the stove, or in a microwave.

I use a pyrex jug for mine and zap it at 50% for a minute and then repeat until it’s liquid. Then I stir the buttermilk into the milk.

Mix your butter and buttermilk together.

If you can’t find buttermilk anywhere, then a 50/50 mix of plain yoghurt and milk will also work; alternatively add a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a cup of milk and wait 5 minutes.

Break your egg into your butter mixture and whisk well with a fork.

Then make the ever-necessary well in your flour and pour the liquid into it.

Add the wet to the dry

Then stir – quickly and gently. Try stirring around the outside and then slicing underneath. It’s hard to describe and I think I may need to post a video at some stage.

In the meantime…just don’t beat the life out of it.

When all the ingredients are just combined. Stop. This is not a cake batter, it will not be smooth and liquid. It will look lumpy – like this.

Stop when it is just mixed together.

Place some muffin cases into your muffin tray. You could just grease the cups, but the paper cases make eating your snacks a much cleaner experience, means they don’t stick together when stored and also make it easier to pack them for lunches.

If you don’t own a muffin tray (I’ve had mine for nearly 20 years, add it to your list.) then use a flat baking sheet or pizza tray and place double thickness muffin cases on top and close together. You could even do this in a cake tin, if you wished.

Dollop spoonfuls of the mix into the bottom of your muffin cups. Don’t spread or smooth the batter, just leave it as it falls.

Fill the bottom of your muffin cups.

Now for the fun bit. Deploy your fillings. I used a teaspoonful of dulce de leche per muffin in this example. It’s quite sweet and I thought that would be sufficient. You may use more, of course!

I would use a tablespoon of Lemon Curd for this purpose, but it’s still up to you (and how much you have to hand!)

It helps to fill a coffee cup with boiling water and dip your metal spoon into it before dipping it into your cold filling. The heat will cut through the cold caramel and help it to slip nicely off into the cups. There is no need to dry your spoon between dunkings.

Use a cup of hot water to help spoon out your filling.

Now cover your caramel with the rest of the muffin mix.

Hide the treasure.

Pop into your hot oven to bake for 20 mins, while you wash up ;-).

If your oven is not fan-forced, you may wish to rotate the tray at the half-way point to ensure even browning.

When done, test by inserting a toothpick or skewer into the center of the thickest muffin. If it comes out clean of raw batter, it’s cooked. Just remember you may hit caramel or lemon curd too!

Allow to cool in the tray for 10-20 mins and then move to a cake rack to cool completely. Set up a guard if you wish to keep them for lunches during the week to come…

Allow to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Muffins: If you tire of using your Dulce de Leche or Lemon Butter in these, and the budget permits, then try sifting a ¼cup of cocoa in with your flour and using a cup of Nutella to fill with.

You’re welcome.

Hidden Treasure Muffins

Servings: 12
Time: 1 hour
Print

Ingredients:

2½ cups self raising flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (Baking Soda)

½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

125g butter, melted

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk

2/3 cup Dulce de Leche or Lemon Curd

Method:

Grease a 12 hole muffin pan, or line with paper cases. (I find this makes transporting them a lot easier.)

Heat your oven to Moderately Hot – 200°C or 400°F.

Sift flour and bicarb into a large bowl.

Add brown sugar and break up any lumps as you stir them together.

In a pyrex measuring jug (for ease) heat your butter in a microwave for 1 minute at 50% power. Repeat until melted. (This step can be done in a small saucepan over low heat if a microwave is not available.)

Add butter milk to jug and whisk together, then add eggs. Mix liquid thoroughly.

Make a well in your flour and pour in all the liquid at once.

Fold together until just mixed. DO NOT BEAT!

Cover the bottom of your muffin cups with a tablespoon or so of the batter.

Place a spoonful or so (it is up to you how generous you wish to be…) of your caramel or lemon curd on to this and then top with the rest of the batter.

Bake on the top shelf of your oven for 20 mins, rotating the tray halfway through.

Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick or skewer through the thickest part of a muffin. If it comes out clean of batter, it’s done.

Leave to cool in the muffin tray for 20 mins or so, before removing to a cake rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

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Slow cooker beef with Asian flavours (from scratch)

Asian-flavoured slow-cooked beef

Okay, so some of you may have clicked over from here. You may find some repetition in this post, so bear with me. Please?

This little concoction is my answer to the “I don’t know what to cook, but I’ll probably be hungry later —and tired—, so this will do” situation.

I’m sure you know what I mean.

Asian-flavoured slow-cooked beef

This is something I can get into the slow cooker in minutes and serve a few hours later – filling my home with gorgeous smells in the intervening period.

I own several slow cookers but the one I use the most has got to be my smallest one. It’s a 1.5 litre or 1 quart sized appliance and it’s perfect for meals for two. All the photos in this post have been taken with this device.

Feel free to double or triple what I do here and then cook it in a larger slow-cooker. It will take longer than the few hours a small one would use to cook the smaller portion, but not much longer.

Start with half a kilo or a pound of chuck steak and cut into large cubes.

Cut into large cubes.

Add your spices to the meat on the cutting board. You can measure them carefully if you wish, I just tend to give each a good shake until I think the meat looks covered enough. I’ve had readers *demand* I give an actual measurement though, so start with a teaspoon of each and then decide if future versions need more or less. It’s completely up to you.

I used these spices:

This is a nice blend of flavours

I find ground cumin, ground coriander and ground ginger combine really well as an accompaniment to beef. It’s a combination that you’ll find often on these pages, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them. If you don’t like ginger, leave it out, it’s your meal after all.

On the other hand, if you are new to this cooking lark, give it a shot and see how you go. You never know, it may win you over.

I add a smattering of chilli flakes just to add a little heat without taking over the dish. I find it easier to control how much I dispense by shaking when I use flakes, chilli powder can be disastrous …

Spice your meat

Now, I prepare some vegetables for the pot. It’s a very simple, very traditional combination of an onion, a carrot and a little celery.

Cut your onion into crescents.

Little crescent moons of onions

Add to the base of the slow cooker.

Dice your carrots and celery and add them as well.

Add carrots and celery.

Again, you can use whatever combination you like. However, I find that these are three that I always have to hand and they form a very good base for most main meal dishes. It’s a mix that is often referred to as the ‘Holy Trinity’ of cooking, so let’s just go with the flow…

Now place your spiced meat into the pot, on top of the vegetables. Don’t stir yet!

I always keep these guys in my refrigerator, add a good teaspoonful of each to the pot.

Refrigerator staples.

Up the flavour with some fresh ginger and garlic.

Now add a good glug of the sauces you’d like to use. On this occasion, I had these in my refrigerator door: Soy & Honey sauce, Hoi Sin and some sesame oil.

*A ‘glug’ may be translated as a tablespoon or so. You’re just adding flavours, not creating a cooking medium.

Choose your sauces

Add a few glugs of whatever sauces you wish to the pot.

You may wish to use plain soy sauce, black bean, teriyaki, sweet chilli, oyster sauce, kecap manis…the list goes on. You don’t have to use a mix, you may use just one if you prefer (or if that is all you have).

Now stir.

Stir it all together.

As you can see from the picture above, the meat and other ingredients are only lightly coated by the sauces and spices.

Using a slow cooker is a very ‘wet’ method of cooking. As the ingredients release their own juices, they are captured via condensation on the lid and then drip down into the pot to further aid cooking. Think of it as your very own little Greenhouse Effect…

Place your pot on either low or high, depending on how quickly you wish to eat. This took my small slow cooker only 2.5 hours on low. If you are making a larger amount of this in a larger slow cooker, it will take longer – possibly 4 -6 hours on low.

Several hours later…

As you can see, there is quite a bit of liquid in the bowl. This can be left as it is, or thickened with some cornflour. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.

I felt that I’d like a few more vegetables in this, so I stirred through a handful each of frozen peas and frozen corn and popped the lid back on the pot for 30 minutes while I steamed some jasmine rice.

And this is the final result:

The final dish served with rice.

If you wish for a more tender version (although this is fab!) follow the instructions here and leave it overnight in the refrigerator before cooking.

Enjoy!

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Freeze ahead slow-cooker beef with asian flavors

Asian-flavoured slow-cooked beef

You know, sometimes you just can’t be bothered cooking.

Sometimes, you don’t have much to cook with…

This is something that can be prepared in minutes and then left to its own devices for several hours, OR prepped in a few minutes and frozen for one of those times when you just can’t be bothered, etc.

It tastes amazing.

It smells divine.

It also costs next to nothing.

All of which is fabulous.

I like to buy chuck steak, toss it with a few spices, stir in some Asian sauces and then walk away and leave it alone.

This is how it’s done:

Firstly, get yourself some nice pieces of chuck steak. You don’t need much, really truly. For today’s efforts I used around 750g or 1½ pounds. That will make 2 meals for us or feed four – whichever math you prefer.

I’m going to cook half now and freeze the rest for a future I-don’t-wanna-cook-day. The rest of this post will be about the preparation for freezing.

Chuck steak

I like to buy whole pieces and cube them myself, it saves a little money over buying pre-diced, but also lets me control which bits get kept and which don’t. For example, while I want the marbling in the meat on the left, I really don’t want to keep the thick streak of fat in the piece on the right… so I discard it.

The rest I cut into large cubes (about an inch a side) and divide into two portions.

Cut into large cubes.

Please use a sharp knife for this, chuck is not a tender cut and it can be frustrating to slice something that just won’t behave nicely on a bluntish blade.

Then I have a little fun.

Half of the meat I pack away into a zip-lock bag for freezing and, as I do this I add a good sprinkling of whatever spices I have to hand and that I think might go well together. In this case I used ground ginger, ground coriander, ground cumin and some chilli flakes.

Add a good shake of whatever you have.

Seal up the bag and massage the spices through. It’s better to do it this way than to use an implement in the bag as you may pierce it and accidentally lay a path for freezer burn. That would be bad.

You can, of course, do this and all the following steps in a bowl and then bag it, but then you’d have to wash the bowl…up to you really!

Give the bag a good massage to mix the spices through the meat.

I like to then add a good teaspoon of grated ginger and crushed garlic – out of a jar. I always have a small jar of each in my refrigerator, it saves time and it saves frustration on those days when my fingers simply won’t behave.

Add a good teaspoon each of grated ginger and crushed garlic.

Now, grab whatever sauce tickles your fancy. You can use one sauce, or you can use several, It’s completely up to you. I used Honey Soy sauce, Hoi Sin and a glug of toasted Sesame oil; simply put a bit into the bag and repeat the massaging.

Add some minced ginger, crushed garlic and a few glugs of sauces.

Add a few glugs of sauce.

Seal the bag, excluding as much air as possible, flatten for easier storage, label and freeze.

Massage your flavours through.

That was traumatically difficult, wasn’t it?

Ready to freeze Asian Spiced beef

Then, when you are ready to cook it, add a few chopped veg to your slow cooker, stir in your beef mixture, place it on low heat and leave it for around 3 hours. Serve with plain rice, or mashed potatoes.

You can add the meat mixture frozen, or let it defrost overnight in your refrigerator. The latter option will allow the meat to marinate for a few hours in all the gorgeous spices and sauces you have added.

I was going to include detailed instructions for assembling the casserole, but the post would be rather long… so, there will be another post here that describes the same recipe but cooked from fresh.

Please forgive me and click on. xx

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Fritters

Fritters are one of those magical things where you create a substantial meal from next to nothing.

Flour, eggs, milk and those odds and sods cluttering up your fridge + a little time = happy tummies.

My mother introduced me to the art of the fritter.

When I was a kid, they were something that popped up on the school holiday or weekend lunch menu on a regular basis – especially during the long, rainy days that were the wet season in Far North Queensland (otherwise known as the Christmas Holidays).

Frightfully frugal fritters

Easy, frugal and tasty they could be a part of your life too.

You could even put your older kids to work making them during those long, wet-season holiday breaks.

Picture a pancake. Your nice, thick fluffy pancake, not a crêpe. Then add in some of the bits and pieces. Fry. Add a dollop of your condiment of choice and Robert is your Mother’s brother.

In our home, fritters inevitably contained either corned beef or hot dogs. In your home, they can contain whatever you want. Think rustic. Chunky pieces of whatever you have to hand.

We had some leftover corned beef, so fritters came to mind due to my childhood association of the two.

In our home it was always referred to as Cane-Cutters’ Ham, because my brother and I didn’t like corned beef….ahem.

Moving on..

So, to a basic pancake batter was added a handful of tasty cheese,

Add a handful of cheese

a handful of diced corned beef,

Diced corned beef

Add diced corned beef

a small can of corn

Add some corn

and some frozen peas.

Add frozen peas

Then an egg was mixed into a jug full of buttermilk,

Whisk an egg into your liquid of choice

and it was all mixed together to form a stiff batter.

The final batter

So what to do with what could be considered a rather intimidating-looking mix?

Introduce it in dollops of a tablespoon or so in size to a hot frying pan or skillet. Use the spoon to spread them a little, but don’t fuss too much.

Start with smallish amounts until you are sure of the temperature of your pan. If the mixture sits there and no sizzling can be heard, then your pan is too cold. If it starts to smoke and you smell burning, then it’s too hot and you may as well dispose of that particular dollop.

Add small dollops to the hot, oiled pan

Don’t touch them until they are ready to be turned/flipped. If you try to move them before they are ready, you’ll end up with a mess in your pan and possibly in tears.

I speak from experience.

Let them gently fry until small holes start to appear in the upper surface of the batter. Like this…

Small bubbles will appear when it’s time to flip them

If you possess an oil spray, you may wish to gently mist the upper surface of the fritter before you flip it. 😉

Using an egg flip/fish slice turn the fritters over and press gently on the top to flatten them a little more.

Flipped fritters

If you expose rather a large amount of uncooked batter when you press down, then don’t panic. Simply gently slide your fritter over to the edge of the fry pan with your egg slice, and hold the raw underside against the curved wall to cook it.

Push the fritters gently against the wall of the frying pan

When the fritter is cooked through, you can either serve them immediately to the hungry hordes that will have gathered as the aroma of frying fritters grew (hyperbole? meh), place them on a paper-towel lined plate in a warm oven, or stow them in a tortilla warmer until they are all done.

I have a tortilla warmer I bought in Walmart for about $3 during my Texan sojourn and it’s brilliant. They now pop up in Aldi’s once or twice a year in Australia and I heartily recommend them.

Tortilla warmer

Fritters, still warm and ready to serve

Eat with your fingers and serve with a dipping sauce of some kind: ketchup, tomato sauce, mayonnaise, sweet chilli sauce, whatever.

These are also great cold as a packed lunch/snack for school or long trips. Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days.

Enjoy!

Fritters

Servings: 3-4
Time: 30 mins
Difficulty: easy
Print

Ingredients:

1½ cups self-raising flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

Seasoning of your choice: pepper, chilli flakes, mixed herbs, mustard powder etc or nothing at all.

1 egg

¾ -1 cup milk (Buttermilk or Natural or Greek yoghurt can also be used for a lighter fluffier batter)

Your choice of meat: leftover roast meat, rotisserie chicken, hot dogs (try continental frankfurters for a treat), bacon, spam or even hard tofu and vegetables: peas, corn, onions, capsicums (peppers) mushrooms, grated carrots, celery, zucchini etc., cut into small dice. Three options should be sufficient, aim for a handful of each.

grated cheese, if desired.

oil for the pan

Method:

Sift flour, sugar and salt into a medium-sized bowl.

If you wish to add herbs or spices, do so now.

Stir in your cheese, meat and veges individually. You will want each piece added to be coated in flour so that they will stick to the mixture.

In another bowl or jug measure your milk, starting with the smaller amount. Add the egg and beat well with a fork.

Make a well in your dry ingredients and add the liquid.

Mix together with a wooden spoon or wide spatula until all ingredients are combined. Add more milk if necessary.

This will form a firm batter.

Heat a frying pan or skillet over medium heat, oiling lightly.

Add batter to pan in spoonfuls, turn only when small holes or bubbles appear in the surface.

Cook for approximately 3 more minutes.

Serve with a sauce of your choice.

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