Chilli Chutney

Just finished cleaning the kitchen after my first attempt at Chilli Chutney (thanks to my new CWA cook book).  It turned out so well that I had to share the recipe with you.

It's so easy to make its a great last minute gift idea.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups finely diced red chillies (remove seeds for a milder flavour)
• 1 onion diced
• 1 1/2 cups of diced cooking apples (or if you can't get your hands on any, 1 x 400g tin of apple pie apples)
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups white vinegar (I used Cornwall's)
• 1 small tsp salt

Method

After finely dicing the apples, chilli's (remember to wear gloves!) and the onion, put them into a pan and start to cook for a minute or two. 

Add the sugar, vinegar and salt.

Bring to the boil, then turn down heat until you have a gentle simmer.  Stir periodically until the sauce thickens.  This should take about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 

Bottle into hot sterilized jars, and if you want to, add  piece of glad wrap before sealing the jars.

Keep in cool, dark place.  Refrigerate after opening.

Best with ...

a sharp vintage cheese - with or without crackers - or on a cold meat sandwich.

Review: Red Hot Murder a Delight!

Red Hot Murder
An Angie Amalfi Mystery, Bk 13
Joanne Pence

Mass Market Paperback, Avon Books, 2006, 334p.
ISBN: 9780060758059

Just Deserts

Dilettante chef Angie Amalfi doubts if she'll actually survive her engagement to San Francisco homicide detective Paavo Smith, what with her meddling mom micromanaging the whole affair.  So Angie leaps at the chance to spend some time away with her fiance in the sun-drenched Arizona desert town where he'd spent time as a boy - and maybe explore the possibility of a Southwestern themed wedding feast.

But her groom-to-be is going back there to help a friend investigate the murder of a wealthy local - and it seems this tiny desert community is a hotbed of deadly secrets.  And when a second course of murder is served up, suddenly Angie's tasty getaway with her lover is starting to look more and more like her final meal.

This is the first Angie Amalfi book I've ever picked up and I have to say that even though I've missed out of 12 other books worth of back story - I loved it.  Angie is a real foodie who doesn't like it when people dis or dismiss her, or her cooking - or her Paavo.

In this book we see her and her fiance, Paavo Smith (odd name combo), on their way to revisit a place from his mostly unhappy childhood.  As with most mysteries, we have a dead body or two, obscure clues, more than a few suspects and a twist that turns the hunt for the killer on it's ear.  I found Angie and Paavo to have a good chemistry even though there wasn't a lot of 'we' time, and unlike most of the leading men of the cop persuasion, he's okay with letting Angie hunt around for some clues.  An Italian girl, we catch glimpses of her family life including a mother who looks like turning into a bridezilla - all on her daughter's behalf, of course - as well as a cast of weird and downright bitchy characters who have hunkered down in the dead man's house.  One of my favourites was the local diner cook who made some of the most disgusting food out, and her reaction to Angie's taste testing is so funny.

This book is much more than a cosy mystery but I wouldn't call it a police procedural/detective mystery either.  Think of this as cosy plus.  Since it's a foodie mystery there are the expected recipes in the back of the book.  Of the three recipes, the Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Pie (see below) makes me drool.  So, if you've enjoyed Stephanie Bond, Karen E. Olsen, Kathleen Bachus or Carolyn Hart then you'll get a kick out of Angie Amalfi.

Angie Amalfi's Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Pie

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (or walnuts if desired)

4 eggs

½ cup light corn syrup

¼ cup honey

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3 tbsp bourbon

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

pinch ground nutmeg

pinch ground cinnamon

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

pastry for 1 pie crust

Heat oven to 350°F.  Toast the pecans in a small pan over med-high heat, tossing often to make sure they roast evenly.  Set aside to cool.

In a bowl add eggs, corn syrup, honey, sugar, brown sugar, butter, bourbon, vanilla  flour, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Beat until mixture is smooth.

Break your chocolate into little bits, and add with the pecans (or walnuts) into the mixture.  Mixing well so that the chocolate and pecans are distributed evenly.

Pour into uncooked pie crust and bake at 350°F until set.  This should take about 40-50 minutes.  Check using a skewer or toothpick to check if pie is cooked -the skewer/toothpick should come out clean - and put aside to cool.  Best served slightly warm with ice-cream.  Enjoy!

Floodwaters receded, phones down and I cooked!

 

Today the sun is shining - and I've managed to get some washing on the line - and I feel great. However, I've got to tell you that I had more than a few anxious moments watching the floodwaters creep up the road. Thankfully the water didn't get any higher than in some of the photos, but the huge stormwater drain behind me did keep me twitchy.



you could surf in this stuff!

Then yesterday, the day after the flooding, all the cell phone coverage - all networks - went kaput.  So, not only couldn't I get in contact with relatives on the coast who were hunkering down in 100km/h plus winds, but I had no way to check the weather or emergency reports for this area.  Not impressed with the phone companies.

 



So as I anxiously waited for the phones to come back online, I started to cook.  First a chocolate cake, then a lasagna.  I have been re-reading the Stephanie Plum books to pass the time during the storms - and she's a terrible influence on my menu!  The cake is yummy and very dense.  And I am so proud of the lasagna as it is the first ever time I've cooked it!  It's delicious, and the pasta is cooked just right.  However it's not as good as my mothers lasagna.  Isn't your mother's cooking always tastier than your own attempts at family recipes?  Thankfully I don't have any pineapples in the house or it could have been a pineapple upside-down cake as I do have a recipe floating around somewhere.  My only problem is now I have to either eat it all, or freeze some of the lasagna as I went a little bit overboard.  Perhaps I could have Lula come over for a feed? :-)

Cooking up a Gingerbread Army

Today was such a tiring day!

I'm editing the final draft of my assignment.  So after staring at the screen for an hour getting nowhere I decide to bake, hoping to relieve my stress...

Yeah, right.

I had bought a packet mix so there I was... I kneaded, and floured, and rolled and cut.  My benches looked like Frosty the Snowman had burst!  Then I had the little darlings in the oven, watching them rise.  Ah, it was all fun and frosting till I saw the washing up... oh boy

Anyhow, next year I'll use my old recipe.  These ones aren't very flavour-some.  A tiny bit of ginger, and no dark brown sugar I suspect.  Next year I'll kick butt with a dark sugar, rich and flavour packed Gingerbread.

In the meantime, I hope all your gingerbread turns out fabulously this Christmas.

Gingerbread cookies

Just found a good recipe for some Gingerbread cookies - thank God - as I want to make some for presents this year.  I have some festive cookie cutters, and will decorate them with Christmas cheer.

Fingers crossed that they turn out, and if this works... who knows, perhaps there's a gingerbread house in my future?