Raspberry and Beetroot Jelly

This retro cool jelly/ relish was such a hit at a recent family garden party on my recent trip to England, I just had to share it. It's super easy but looks pretty damn complicated to make (so a good dish to impress the guests!) It's a real showpiece on the table! I'm so glad there was enough for the party and leftovers for the next few days as I couldn't get enough of it. Enjoy, Ingrid

Grandma Mimi's Raspberry Beetroot Jelly

Serves about 20 party guests
What you need:
1kg cooked beetroot (diced)
1 packet of raspberry jelly
250ml water (boiling)
250ml white wine vinegar

How to make:
Pack the diced beetroot into a jelly mould. Dissolve jelly into boiling water and add white wine vinegar. Add to the beetroot. Refrigerate overnight until set and keep cool until ready to serve. Serve with a tub of sour cream and chives.

Tips: 

• Perfect with bbq food or cold meats such as ham.
• Will last for at least a week in the fridge.
• If you want to make a family sized jelly, just halve the ingredients.

Tangy and fruity, a refreshing change to the usual staple bbq salads. 

Lemon and Sour Cream Loaf

Lemons ideas part four 
The problem I have is whatever I make, I am tempted to eat. I decided to make these loaves for my mum and dad, my auntie and a family friend. There is no calories in licking the bowl is there?

All ready to give to my lovely dad... 

I ended up making 3 smallish loaves so sandwiched them together with a bit of the icing and topped them with the candied lemons in from my last post.

Topped with candied lemons - will tell you how in the next post!

Lemon and sour cream loaf 
Lemon and Sour cream loaf from ECook

125 grams butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 grated rind lemons
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/4-1/2 cup mixed peel
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp lemon juice

1.  Beat the butter, sugar and lemon rind to a cream. Add the egg and beat well.

2.  Beat in the sour cream. Fold in the sifted flour and peel alternately with the milk and lemon juice.

3.  Spread into a well-greased and floured 10 cm x 20 cm loaf tin.

4.  Bake at 180°C for 40 minutes until cooked when tested.

The sour cream icing was amazing!

Sour cream icing 
All I did for the icing was follow the same method as a cream cheese icing on a cheese cake. Sour cream is not as thick as the cream cheese so beating it with icing sugar made it on the runny side so I decided not to add any lemon juice. In hind sight lemon peel would have been nice. Refrigerate before you spread it on the cakes.
Enjoy X

Candied Lemons

Candied lemons on baking paper 

Lemon ideas part three
Lemons or oranges done this way are really really addictive. They make a fantastic garnish on cakes/cupcakes and would even be cute as a garnish to lemon tea at a tea party. A  celebration ham topped with sliced oranges and lemons coated in a sweet whisky marmalade syrup/ golden syrup/brown sugar also works well.

You could even pack them into a preserving jar and keep them for when you need a sweet and sour sugar rush, I imagine they would last quite a while...

All you need to do is slice up the lemons, place on baking paper and add a teaspoon of sugar to each slice. Bake them in a moderate oven for around 20 minutes. Do keep checking them as they can go from soft to crispy pretty quickly.

I used my ones on a lemon and sour cream cake (below) with sour cream icing - delicious.

Lemon and sour cream cake with candied lemons and spring flowers 

Lemon Syrup Yoghurt Shake

Hundreds and thousands bring back childhood memories...

Lemon ideas part two 

My last post was like making pancakes, the first one is never the best! The recipe is great but I wasn't happy with the images or the font. Last night I had a 3am moment (well to be honest it was 5am and I was up with bubba #2) thinking about lemon syrup...

I thought about all the lemony things I love. Tip Top lemon yoghurt ice-cream and Puhoi lemon yoghurt  being two of the best I have been indulging in for a while and you cant go past a good zesty lemon curd on your toast. This sparked my imagination for a lemon yoghurt shake and I couldn't wait to get out of bed and make it...

With an abundance of lemons check out the previous post to make the syrup. It lasts for ages and has many uses, this being one of my favourites. Its reasonably healthy other than the sugar and a great way to get your kids to drink milk and yoghurt. To thicken it up you could add vanilla ice-cream or for the healthier option throw in a banana.       

Preserving jars make great milkshake containers

In a blender add 1 pottle of yoghurt, 2 pottles of milk, 1/2 -1 pottle of lemon syrup and blitz for a minute or so. To make the hundred and thousands stay on the jars, dip them into the shake (just the rims) and agitate in a saucer of hundred and thousands. I tried chocolate hail but it wasn't very successful, it just wouldn't stick!

Lemon Syrup

Lemons ideas part one...
Ingrid is away and I am in charge! She is sunning (fingers crossed) herself in the UK and Croatia whilst I am finally getting it together post baby. Its only taken 5 months to get my head around when my baby  sleeps, poops, eats and cries! Meanwhile our poor blog has been neglected...

I am getting the ball rolling with some spring ideas for using lemons.
I love "Roses lime cordial" and saw in my aunties fridge the other day a bottle of "posh" lemon cordial. I looked at the label and all it had in it was water, sugar and lemon juice. It came from a shop up the road from me so I popped in to get some but was horrified at the price $15.00 (It came in a beautiful bottle so that's probably what you are paying for) so with an abundance of lemons I decided to make my own.

What you need
1 1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar

How to make
Bring to the boil and simmer until the liquid becomes syrupy. It will take about 20-30 minutes.

Other ideas for lemon syrup...
Drizzle over cakes and loaves
Mix with gin/vodka and lemonade
Mix with tonic water for a non alcoholic G+T
Pour over pancakes or piklets
Pour over vanilla ice-cream

     

Get Voting: Sister vs sister - Round Two

We go head to head in our second cook-off for New World Supermarket's Real Magazine. Our challenge: To create a dish using that wonderful spring ingredient – asparagus!

The competition is on!

Growing up with an Italian dad, asparagus was commonplace at the table. His regular offering at barbecues was a salad of asparagus and hard-boiled eggs dressed in olive oil and vinegar, seasoned with salt and pepper. It's a winner. 

While living in the UK in our 20s, we noticed that in spring, restaurants went crazy putting new-season asparagus on the menu, most often served with a luscious hollandaise sauce. They even peeled the skin! We always giggled that asparagus was elevated to "entrée" status and treated like a delicacy because in our family home, it was tossed nonchalantly into a myriad of meals.

The recipes we've compiled are in remembrance of our wonderful Italian Nonna. See what we came up with and tell us what tickles your fancy by voting. All New Zealand voters go in the draw to win $50 New World vouchers

TO VOTE

Vanessa's guest interview

Be My Guest: The KitchenMaid Interview

by Lucy Corry

      

I am currently caught in a frustrating battle to figure out what exactly has gone wrong with the connection between my camera and computer. I can't imagine anything so basic happening to Vanessa and Ingrid Opera, the sister act behind New Zealand food blog Foodopera.

These two juggle blogging with babies, magazine shoots, day jobs and photography - but Vanessa still found the time to fill in the blanks for this week's Be My Guest.

Who are your food heroes?
I know Ingrid quite likes Bill Graner, his simplicity and freshness. I used to be really into Nigella Lawson, I just loved her appetite for everything food. Rick Stein is also a bit of an old favourite too. However currently I am into anything Asian, I love Kylie Kwong, her books and TV show.
I own HEAPS of cook books so its actually really difficult to have just one hero. My aunty recently gave me the book Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi that has amazing ways with vegetables and I picked up "Dinner at Matt's" by Matt Moran at the library. It features fancy pants food that you could cook at home. The photography is great too.

Read the full interview here