Easy Noodle Salad

This easy salad recipe will have you on your knees! Noodle salads can be hit and miss sometimes, but I promise that this one delivers. Tangy but sweet, crunchy but soft—it’s everything a crisp noodle salad should be. The first time my boyfriend made this I fell in love with it, and it’s a salad that I always wonder how I lived without whenever we make a fresh batch. The crowning glory of this salad is the vinaigrette dressing, as it is so easy to make and tastes so good I’ve actually had to lick my bowl. Uh… you didn’t know that! This also makes a great salad to bring to parties, as it’s not your ordinary green salad nor does it have any expensive ingredients.

So what are you waiting for? Get out the knife and start chopping to make this easy & delicious noodle salad!

Read more »

Posted: September 2nd, 2010 under Easy, Joni's Blog, Recipes, Salads, Sauces & Dips, Sides - 1 Comment. Tags: almonds, chinese cabbage, green onion, noodles, pine nuts, sunflower seeds

Spicy Yam Soup

The weather is slowly struggling and fighting its way towards summer, here in Australia. Some days are glorious—sitting on the balcony with a book requires an iced tea instead of a hot coffee, and you start contemplating moving some of your seedlings outside. The next day it could be hailing, or a blustery rainy day where that chai looks a whole lot better steaming hot.

So, I’m still in the mood for hot soups, especially when leftovers can be put in the boyfriend’s hands for a filling lunch the next day. And sometimes, things in the fridge just come together into a lovely combination. This recipe is actually loosely based off of the African Yam Soup which you can find in the Rebar cookbook, but it’s based off of my mum’s version and then altered heavily again, so really the only similarity is a few tablespoons of peanut butter. I will just say though that yams are very forgiving when it comes to soups—you could really chuck in any veggies into this and it’d still taste great. Ah, yams, how I love thee.

While taking photos of this soup, I discovered that it tastes great cold too. (Sometimes photos take a while, so hot soup gets cold in the process. But can you tell in the photos? Nup. I wonder why I bother reheating leftovers for photos most of the time, actually.) So consider this a great recipe for all year round!

Read more »

Posted: August 31st, 2010 under Easy, Joni's Blog, Mains, Recipes, Sides - No Comments. Tags: capsicum, carrot, garlic, kumara, leftovers for lunches, pepper, soup, tomato, vegan, vegetarian, yam

Cranberry Nut Loaf

Health alert! This wonderful loaf is moistened with yoghurt, sweetened with honey and molasses, crunchy with walnuts, and has a whack of whole wheat goodness. Can you say, ‘yum’? Even better, this is the last recipe that I’ve been milking off of cooking Christmas in July, and is the result of one of my tips in the Art of Feast Cooking on how to use up ingredients that you have left over from a holiday meal. The ingredient? You guessed it—cranberry sauce!

Now, cranberry sauce doesn’t always need to be used up straight away. It doesn’t go off as quickly as other ingredients—if it’s in a jar and in the fridge, it can last several months after the fact (which is also why I got to doing this recipe only now). And whether you were using home made cranberry sauce or from a jar or can, it also freezes just fine, to be used for your next holiday meal. If you’ve already defrosted it once, though, it’s probably a good idea not to freeze & keep reusing it… you know, food safety and all that! So that’s where this recipe comes in.

This loaf reminded me a lot of one of my favourite muffin recipes, and its moist, dense interior is just so satisfying with a cup of tea or coffee in the morning. I was a bit surprised when I pulled it out of the oven to see how dark it was on the outside, and was thinking with a bit of dismay that I’d managed to burn the whole thing (and ruin my attempt at cleverly using up all our leftover ingredients). Fortunately, it was all a clever guise—once I cut into it to see that it was in fact done perfectly, I remembered that the more complex sugars (such as honey and molasses, which are used in this recipe), tend to darken much faster than normal white sugar. Think of it as a ‘caramelizing’! The edges of your loaf might look quite dark, but they will in fact taste just fine.

Alright, on with the show! See my notes at the bottom of the recipe for ingredient substitutions if need be.

Read more »

Posted: August 29th, 2010 under Baking, Breakfast, Easy, Joni's Blog, Recipes - No Comments. Tags: cranberries, dates, honey, molasses, raisins, sultanas, walnuts, wheat germ, yoghurt, yogurt

Lemon Myrtle No-bake Cheesecake

This recipe had two firsts for me—firstly, my first foray into using native Australian spices which I had been eyeing up at various venues for quite some time. Secondly, my first no-bake cheesecake, which I’m chagrined to say that I should have made a long time ago. When you grow up with maybe the world’s best baked cheesecake, it’s hard to admit (and I’ve argued several times) that anything but a baked cheesecake is worth anyone’s time or calories. I stand corrected. No-bake cheesecakes are lighter and just as satisfying as baked cheesecakes, though I do think that the two are in rather separate categories and thusly shouldn’t be compared (it’d be like comparing a gorgeous chocolate mousse to chocolate pate—I mean seriously, couldn’t you just eat one on top of the other?).

Suffice it to say, this cheesecake was gorgeous, and a complete success. It was light in texture and had a great balance between crust and filling, and the lemon myrtle lent such a unique flavour. It smells and tastes of a combination of lemon, lime, and lemongrass, a little potent and exotic but entirely flavourful and versatile. Interestingly, all the Aussies who I’ve shown it to have never used it before, though I wouldn’t describe it as uncommon either. It goes magnificently with all sorts of dishes, from cheesecake and sweetbreads to fish and chicken, as well as teas and herbal blends. I have a good little tin of it to use up, so you’ll be seeing more lemon myrtle recipes eventually! I haven’t found any sites that export to North America, but seriously, if you want some I can easily head over to the Oxfam shop and buy you a 70 g tin for $8. It’s amazing stuff.

If you don’t have access to any lemon myrtle, consider using lemon or orange zest instead, with a pinch of cloves or honey or somesuch. Or make it a simple cheesecake without any flavouring, which will be just as delicious!

Read more »

Posted: August 26th, 2010 under Desserts, Easy, Joni's Blog, Recipes - 1 Comment. Tags: cake, cream cheese, gelatin, gelatine, lemon myrtle

Random Post: The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

If you haven’t guessed already, I’m not someone to joke about chocolate. Ever. If it’s good, it’s worth eating–if it’s not, toss it out the window before it dimples your thighs. Chocolate cake comes in a myriad of recipes, and a lot of them are pretty darn good, but this recipe, my friends, is the best.

I found this recipe in the Elle Canada magazine, and it just goes to show that good recipes can crop up in the most unlikely of places. I knew it would be good because of the ingredients: butter, sugar, plenty of cocoa, and the two most important ingredients of all, the beer and the sour cream. See what I mean? There’s just no rivalling this cake for decadence and deliciousness.

The recipe is a pretty basic one, and so quite flexible. You can add nuts, berries, chocolate chips, flavourings, or whatever else catches your fancy. I’ve left notes at the bottom for making a chocolate ganache to top the cake with, which is easy to make and adds that je ne sais quoi of moistness and richness.

This cake keeps and travels well for lunch. Wrap up a few pieces in tin foil and take ‘em to work! …If your willpower lets you, anyway.

Read more »

Posted: February 14th, 2010 under Baking, Desserts, Easy, Joni's Blog, Recipes - 2 Comments. Tags: beer, chocolate, comfort food, sour cream, the best ever