Very easy recipes @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: Easy peasy

Easy-peasy recipes

Summer Berry Pudding

summer pudding 5

Even though my husband considers me overly effusive and loquacious, there are some times when I like to speak through cooking. I made this pudding as a way to say “I love you” to my husband who adores berries and fruit in every form. I should share an amusing tidbit with you Dear Reader. We never actually said “I love you” to each other until the day he proposed to me, five years after we had started dating. We were both terrified of not hearing it echoed back that we thought that we would remain tight lipped on the subject and not utter those terrifying three words at all.

summer pudding 4

I’m still not quite sure why I was so reluctant to say it. Hazarding a guess, former boyfriends had always said it first so I knew that I wouldn’t be greeted with a wall of silence when I uttered it but I was determined not to be the over the top girlfriend proclaiming love at every turn. I realise that after say a couple of years I should have felt safe saying it but by then in my twisted logic I thought that he definitely wouldn’t answer it as he should have said it by then. When he proposed I blurted it out to him and to my immense relief he said it back and we grinned like monkeys.

Click here to read the full story

76 comments | February 2, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella

Lamington Tiramisu aka Lamingtonmisu For Australia Day!

lamington tiramisu lamingtonmisu 4

When I was young the things that made me laugh were jokes or speeches starting with “Ladies and Germs” and silly slips of the tongue like when I called a groom a “broom” – I recall laughing so hard I caused myself a stitch. The hardest thing in life was which Barbie to ask for for my birthday (Barbie Fashion Face bien sur!) and then the most fabulous cakes were either sponge cakes with jam and cream in the centre with pink icing or lamingtons. What was not to love about a coconut dusted chocolate coated vanilla sponge with some jam and cream spread across the middle?

lamington tiramisu lamingtonmisu 1

Thankfully my tastes in both jokes and food have matured but I still do like a good, fresh lamington. I knew that this year for Australia Day I wanted to make something amazingly good but also very Australian. I toyed with the idea of using bush spices but knew that my overseas readers would have difficulty obtaining these. It was only when a friend and I were joking about holding a retro Australia Day party using our favourite Australian foods from childhood that the idea struck me. The foods we discussed included Redskin Splits, Bubble O Bill ice creams, Cheezels, party pies, sausage rolls (with tomato sauce of course), chocolate crackles, honey joys, Iced Vo Vos and of course lamingtons. Then I realised that I had two key ingredients to make a fabulous Australia Day dessert.

lamington coated

Lamingtons

Please know Dear Reader that I am not setting you up for a lot of work with this one. This can also be done with store bought lamingtons and is a fast and fabulous way to put together a dessert as it doesn’t require the usual soaking time for tiramisu as you are using sponge finger biscuits and the sponge is soft enough. You could make this and serve it straight away or make it ahead of time e.g. the day before and unclip it and have it ready to serve. You could also do individual lamington tiramisus which have a more elegant look and all they require is a little spreading of the mascarpone and you could probably get a male into the act by telling him that it’s really just like laying mortar for bricks. Mr NQN was fabulous help with this.

lamington tiramisu 3

I didn’t use a store bought lamington. Instead I used some Ferrero sponge bars that I was sent as part of a Christmas gift from the nice people at Ferrero and their fabulous PR company. They were perfect for the job and these bars were even filled with chocolate cream to make them even more luscious. If you can’t a hold of these, and you probably won’t be able to as I haven’t seen them on shelves, I’d recommend using lamingtons. I’ve given a recipe using a store bought lamington as this is much easier and there’s no shame in using store bought when the whole point of Australia Day is celebrating it by having the day off work!

So tell me Dear Reader, which is your favourite holiday and why? And Happy Australia Day for tomorrow!

Lamington Tiramisu

An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella

750g store bought lamingtons* (to make your own see recipe below)
2 teaspoons coffee powder
2 teaspoons warm water
500grams/1 pound mascarpone
1/2 cup icing sugar
400ml cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup kahlua or frangelico
100g /3.5 oz raspberry jam
1.5 packets of Iced Vovo biscuit to decorate (optional)
2 teaspoon cocoa powder to decorate

If making one large Lamington Tiramisu cake:

1. In a small cup, dissolve the coffee powder in some warm water. Beat the mascarpone with 1/2 cup of icing sugar and coffee mixture until thick and able to keep its shape and set aside. In another bowl, whip the cream with 1/4 cup of sugar until stiff and set aside.

coffee mascarpone

Coffee mascarpone

2. Line a square or round springform cake tin with half of the lamingtons fitting them snugly or trimming them if necessary. Drizzle with half of the kahlua or frangelico and then spread with raspberry jam. Then spoon over the coffee mascarpone and then smooth this out with a palette knife. Place a second layer of lamingtons and repeat with kahlua or frangelico and then spoon over whipped cream and using a clean palette knife smooth this over.

3. Spread a little cream behind an Iced Vovo biscuit and stick onto the side of the cake.

If making individual Lamington Tiramisus:

1. Take a lamington and spread it with raspberry jam. Sprinkle a teaspoon or so of kahlua or frangelico and then spread some coffee mascarpone on top. Top with another lamington and repeat with raspberry jam and kahlua or frangelico. Then top with whipped cream and affix Iced Vovo biscuit on top.

Making your own lamingtons

You will need

750g sponge cake
3 cups icing sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
100g/3.5 ozs butter chopped up
3/4 cup boiling water
3 cups dessicated coconut

1. Cut sponge into desired pieces-lamingtons are usually square or rectangular. Place dessicated coconut on a large plate or bowl.

dipping lamington \

Dipping the sponge into the chocolate icing

2. Sift icing sugar and cocoa together. Mix the boiling water and butter until butter has melted and then stir into icing sugar and cocoa mix and mix until a smooth glossy icing is made. Dip sponge pieces in briefly coating the sponge all over and allow the excess chocolate to drip off. Place on coconut and using two forks, roll the chocolate coated sponge in the coconut. Having made a lamington, you are now granted honorary Australian citizenship!

rolling lamington

Use two forks to toss the chocolate coated sponge bar in dessicated coconut

lamington tiramisu lamingtonmisu 2

78 comments | January 25, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella

Raw Mixed Berry Oatmeal Porridge – Slothful Sundays

raw mixed berry porridge 3

I know I scared you there for a moment didn’ t I? Don’t worry Dear Reader, this hasn’t turned into a health and well being blog. Rest assured I followed this brunch up with a slice of bacon and a poached egg. This is more my softly, softly approach to health and fitness although I should divulge my lack of credentials for this task. I’ve never been hired in a professional capacity to offer fitness advice – my inherent laziness prevents me from doing this. Not so much a code of ethics but a code of incompetence.

Case in point: we recently went to Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains over the Christmas break and there were three different leves of cave tours from easy tracks to strenuous. I leaned over and whispered at the the woman behind the ticket counter:

“Umm look I’m able bodied but very lazy. Tell me honestly, which level would suit me?”.

She laughed – perhaps she has heard this before, and gestured at the crowd in the line behind me. There were pensioners, the middle aged and small children.

“I think you’ll be fine with the strenuous level dear” she said chuckling.

porridge processor

Click here to read the full story

52 comments | January 17, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella

Japanese Pizza Pancake Okonomiyaki & Carrie Bradshaw

okonomiyaki japanese pizza pancake 1

I’m a Gleek. Yes, there I said it. If you’re not sure what I mean, I’m addicted to the show Glee and the songs and one of the first meals when we moved into our new place was this Japanese Pizza pancake called Okonimyaki as it was an easy dinner that wcould be made on the stovetop as we’re still waiting with bated breath for our new oven to arrive. And one of the first things I did once we had moved in was sing my little heart out to the theme song, something that I couldn’t do while staying at my parent’s place. I like to sing alone, yes I do. Whilst I appreciated my parents opening up their house to us, a girl has got to sing.

okonomiyaki japanese pizza pancake 5

The renovations took about 2.5 months and we breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was finally finished. I had no idea how stressful renovating was until our bathroom guy showed up at 11:30pm and proceeded to hammer until 2am. We had no idea until one of our neighbours called me the next day saying apologising that she had to go down and tell him to stop hammering. Great” I said to my husband. “We are off to a great start with our neighbours” and I was sure that we were the least popular people in the building.

But now that it’s all finished it seems a distant memory (apart from the dozen boxes that greet me every day waiting to be unpacked). When I served this up to my husband, with the intention of sharing it, he wanted to appropriate it all for himself which I suppose is the ultimte compliment. It’s a ridiculously easy recipe and it is part of my new monthly column in Web Child (yes I’m a columnist! How Carrie Bradshaw ). The editor SydneyGalwho is a long time reader of NQN wanted me to do a story on making cabbage edible for kids and Okonomiyaki was the first thing that sprang to mind whilst still making a dish palatable for adults. It’s also very economical, versatile and relatively quick.

okonomiyaki japanese pizza pancake 4

I went a bit artistic with the feathering details but a lattice pattern is more traditional and of course if you’re doing it for a child, a smiley face is almost de rigeur. They will love the pancakey taste and the hidden cabbage provides a nice crunch but it’s subtle enough so that they aren’t scared away. Plus with Halloween coming up, add some fake spiders and you have a spider’s web! The best thing about it is that the meat can be changed to whatever you have to hand or it can easily be done as vegetarian and it still tastes great.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you sing in front of people or only alone? Are you a karaoke star or strictly a shower singer?

Click here to read the full story

83 comments | October 16, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

The Five Minute Cheesecake in a Mug!

5 minute cheesecake 3

Allow me to draw you a rather woeful picture: we have finally moved into our new place and were waiting for our new oven to arrive. My baking fingers were itching to bake something. Like an addict I’d pore over cookbooks flagging the recipes that I wanted to make and don’t you know it, they were all cakes that required an oven. My hands would twitch, wanting to beat something or whisk something. Pictures of delicate macarons were pored over lustfully and longingly, my fingers stroking the pages. All things that required my long awaited oven. Until my friend Kathy (who I want to employ one day as she is such a fantastic ideas person unless of course someone else has already hired her) linked me to this recipe for a Five Minute Cheesecake in a Mug from the blog I Really Like Food.

5 minute cheesecake 2

Now those of you that have made baked cheesecakes know that they’re a long process. Whole cheesecakes take at least an hour in the oven although the mixing of one is a relatively quick process. So it should be possible surely? I tried a few variations trying to make my own version using raspberries and some turned out ok and some barely passable but the final recipe if I can say immodestly was rather good indeed.

The raspberries and lemon balance the creaminess and sweetness of the cheese. The key of course is to whisk it thoroughly. If it’s not mixed properly, the resultant cheesecake will be awfully lumpy – it needs to be smooth which does involve some elbow work. I refused to use the Kitchenaid for it, after all the key was to make it as easy as possible with as little equipment and washing up as possible. Like the Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake, timing is the key. I dislike giving timings for microwaves as they vary so much but mine took 60 seconds on 50% power and then another 45 seconds on 50% power but do check and adjust. It will cook further once it’s out of the microwave.

5 minute cheesecake 1

Of course it’s not an entire miracle and you do need to chill it for a couple of hours to get the true, cold cheesecake texture but you can console yourself with the idea that you only have to cook it for 5 minutes. Might I add that one of the best things is that you really need to use low fat cream cheese and sour cream – yes you need to if you want to beat this by hand. The beautiful part is that it doesn’t taste low fat and truly only takes 5 minutes. OK so it is a miracle indeed.

So tell me Dear Reader, what culinary miracles do you dream of performing? Dinner on the table within 15 minutes? A neverfail souffle or the ability to throw amazing dinner parties? Or something else altogether?