Zucchini and Parmesan Muffins

Recipe from 100 Favourite Muffins and Slices
Images by Yasmin

This is a really scrumptious and filling savoury bite of goodness. The different types of cheese just take this muffin to a whole new dimention! I really enjoy eating these muffins because I can have the satisfaction of eating something delicious without feeling guilty about eating something sweet and unhealthy.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups standard (plain) flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• black pepper, to taste
• 1 cup grated tasty cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 3 zucchini, grated (250g altogether)

Method:
Heat oven to 200'C fanbake, with the rack just below the middle.

Sift or fork together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Grind in black pepper to taste, then add the grated cheeses and stir to combine.

Break the eggs into another large bowl, add the milk and whisk together with a fork, then add the grated unpeeled zucchini.

Tip the dry ingredients into the liquid mixture, then carefully fold everything together, taking care not to overmix. As soon as all the flour is moistened, spoon the mixture  into 12 lightly buttered or non-stick sprayed regular muffin pans or 24 mini muffin pans.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops are golden and the muffins spring back when pressed in the centre.

Meringue Cupcakes

Recipe from CupcakesImages by Yasmin

I love meringue. It is beautiful on lemon meringue pie, so it is just as beautiful as an icing for cupcakes. To make this cupcake look even more sweet and appetising it is dusted with jelly crystals. De-lic-ious! This was served for afternoon tea with Citrus Slice, posted previously. Great for a hot summers day.

Ingredients:
For cupcake:

• 1 1/3 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk

Meringue Topping:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• jelly crystals, to decorate (any colour)

Method:
Line cupcake tins with patty pans.

For cupcakes, combine the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl. In a medium sized bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition. With mixer on slow speed, add the mixed dry ingredients and milk. Spoon the batter into the prepared patty pans, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for 10-20 minutes, until golden brown and firm to touch. Transfer to wire rack once cool.

For Meringue, beat at high speed the egg whites until soft peaks form when beaters are removed. While the motor is running slowly pour the sugar into the egg whites. Beat until meringue is thick and forms soft peaks.

Spoon meringue on top of the cupcakes. Using the spoon create small peaks on the cupcakes. Dust with jelly crystals. Store in refrigerator in sealed container.

Vegetable Pie

Recipe and Images by Yasmin

This is a delicious and healthy dish for dinner or lunch; a boxing day delight! Although the many vegies, this pie is sweet in some sections because of the sultanas which give the dish a nice sweet kick! I would recommend this pie to anyone, as my family knows - I love pies!!!

Ingredients:

• 2 sheets puff pastry
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
•  1/2 cups sultanas
• 3 tsp curry powder
• 2 medium carrots grated
• 1 onion grated
• 1 stalk of celery, chopped
• 125g grated cheese
• 2 cups broccoli
• egg for glazing
• seasame seeds

Method:
Line pie tin with sheet of pastry. Combine  remaining ingredients and place in pie shell. Cover with pastry and bake in moderate oven until golden.

Home Made Sushi

Recipe and Images by Yasmin

I LOVE SUSHI! It is delicious! I could survive on sushi if I had to I love it that much. This is my own version of sushi. The best thing about sushi is the filling options are endless! I usually slice carrot, cucumber, avocado and ham to fill the centre of the sushi roll, but this time my sister enlightened me to the idea of an omlette filling, which is equally as yummy! When making sushi it is best to have a sushi mat to make rolling the sushi easier.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Sushi rice
• 1-2 packets of Nori Paper
• Cooked Omlette

Method:
Cook Sushi rice via instructions on the packet. Allow to cool completely. Put Nori paper on sushi mat and place 3-4 tablespoons of cooked rice along the width of the nori paper, 3cm in from the top of the nori to allow room to roll. Place thin strips of omlette on top of the rice. Roll the sushi. Slightly wet the end of the nori paper to stick to the rest of the roll. Slice into sushi pieces. Continue this process until all of the sushi rice has been used. Serve with soy sauce.

Zucchini Slice/Pie

Recipe and Images by Yasmin

This is a delicious snack or meal to serve. We ate this on Boxing Day 2011 with a group of friends along with many other small dishes which I will post at a later date. This slice is also great for pic-nics. Yum Yum!!!

Ingredients:

• 4 large zucchini
• 1 large onion
• 4 bacon rashers
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup SR Flour
• 1/4 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Method:
Grate unpeeled zucchini, chop onion finely, chop bacon. Combine ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into greased flan or slice tin. Bake for 30-40 minutes in moderate oven.

Pasties

Recipe and Images from Yasmin

This is a very simple dinner to prepare when live is hectic and there are many busy and late nights. This is a meal perfect for when you don't feel like making something that takes a while to develop a great flavour, is filling and healthy. If there are any left over puff pastry sheets to fill with the meat filling, simple sweet pasties can be prepared as well. The list of fillings possible for this pastry design is endless, so have a go at mixing your favourite sweet and savoury flavours to produce something simply delicious. If serving this meal as a dinner, be sure to serve with a beautiful garden salad. I apologise in advance for this inartistic photo of the meal, we were in a hurry to eat and I couldn't prepare a decent setting for the meal. It is eaten so quickly it is hard to capture it on camera!!!

(cooked savoury pastie)

Ingredients:

For Savoury:

• 1-2 carrot
• 1-2 zucchini
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 potato
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 cup corn kernells
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 300-500g minced beef 

For Sweet:

•  2 -3 dessert spoons of jam
• 1 apple, thinly sliced and cored
• 1 cup dried fruit (of choice)
• 1/2 cup coconut 

 (Uncooked Sweet Pastie)

Method:

Take frozen puff pastry sheets out of freezer and separate, allowing to defrost on the bench.

While pastry is defrosting, prepare savoury filling. Into a large bowl, grate carrot, zucchini, sweet potato, potato, beans and corn. Add partially defrosted minced meat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Using bare hands, thoroughly combine the savoury filling. 

Using a sharp knife, divide the mostly defrosted pastry diagonally, to create two triangles. Place a small handful of the uncooked mixture in one end of a triangle piece of pastry. Mold this to fit into the triangle shape, leaving about 1-2cm room around the edges to allow room to fold the pastry. Grab the other corner of the triangle and drag it over the filling to match the triangle shape, this is symmetrical. Press down on the folded pastry to seal the triangle shape pastie. Fold over the edges of the triangle and press again to secure (this should make sure that the pastie won't open and the contents spill). Lastly, twist the ends of the triangle, as it is just excess pastry.

Continue until all filling is used. As each pastie is made, place it on an oven tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Cook for 20-30 minutes on 180'C fan-forced.

If there is leftover pastry either cut it into triangles, as done for the savoury pasties, or leave it as a square to then fold into a rectangle (as shown in picture). Prepare a sweet filling. Smooth jam over pastry. Cover with coconut, thinly sliced apple, currants, sultanas, dried apricots and/or dates. Fold symetrically, using the same method as before, whether it is a triangle or rectangle, except, for the rectangle, cut a few slits in the sides (as shown in the photo).

Cook for 20-30 minutes at 180'C fan-forced.

Zucchini, Ham and Cheese Cups

Recipe from Recipes+
Photos by Yasmin

This is a very unique and clever idea. Essentially this recipe is just another form of mini quiche; however, instead of using pastry to hold the filling, you use ham! I didn't have enough ham for all the mixture this recipe makes so I used pastry cups as well as ham cups. This is the first of my real Easter recipes I'm posting, not because it looks like anything to do with Easter, but because on Easter my family shares a big and beautiful BBQ breakfast which will include this savoury snack. In this way it is linked to Easter. Feel free to share with me what you do on Easter. Do you have a nice breakfast too, or perhaps a special dinner, but more importantly what do you eat while enjoying you family or friend's company? I wish everyone a very happy Easter. Alleluia!
TIP: For something a little different, use pancetta or salami instead of ham or pastry. Also, to make this snack healthier, add other vegetables as well, such as grated carrot or thinly diced capsicum.

(Left side is ham, Right side is pastry)

Ingredients:

• 24 (200g) slices shaved leg ham (or pastry)
• 2 large zucchini
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup cream (I used skim milk instead)
• 2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 4 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved (or normal sized tomatoes cut into small slices)
• Mixed salad, to serve

Method:
Preheat oven to 160'C fan forced. Grease a 12 hole mini quiche tray (more if needed). Line each hole with 2-3 overlapping slices of ham to shape the nests. Coarsely grate zucchini; using hands, squeeze out excess liquid.

Whisk eggs and cream in a medium sized bowl. Stir in zucchini and cheese. Spoon mixture into prepared holes. Top with tomato. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked. Remove from oven. Stand for 5 minutes. Serve with salad.

Scrolls

Recipe and photos by Yasmin

Scrolls are a brilliant invention. It is the simplest of recipes; needing only two ingredients and a constant ratio of 1:2 - 1cup of buttermilk to 2cups of Self Raising Flour. From this you can be as creative or subtle as intented; however, the result is undyingly satisfying. I have made this snack or lunch many times before today, yet today is somewhat special because I am sharing a memorable cooking experience with a longtime friend. A caring primary school friend visited and we prepared this dish, alongside many others, as we prepared a feast to celebrate the end of Lenten fasting. As a beginner we made scrolls, followed by the main meal of Chicken and Corn Pie, and finishing with afternoon tea of Apple and Cinnamon Cake and lastly dessert being Incredible Pie. This was a VERY filling and enjoyable experience - as every cooking session should be. I regard my kitchen and cookbook as an old friend as I embrace the task ahead, rather than some people today who believe cooking is a burden and a nuisance. I hope you enjoy the first of many recipes being posted after my Lenten break. It is both sweet and savoury - a perfect balance to start.

Ingredients:

• Buttermilk (a carton)
• Self Raising Flour
• Fillings of choice

Filling Combinations:
Sweet:

• Plum Jam, shredded coconut, shredded apple and sultanas (as featured in photo)
• Shredded apple, cinnamon and sugar
• Nutella and choc chips
• Apricot jam, diced apricots and shredded coconut
• Strawberry Jam and mixed dried fruit
• White chocolate and passionfruit pulp
• Honey and sliced banana

Savoury:

• Vegimite and cheese
• Shredded ham, cheese and pineapple
• Salami, ham and cheese
• Semi-dried tomatoes, low fat feta cheese, ham, salami and cheese

Method:
In a bowl, combine 1 cup of buttermilk and 2 cups of flour with a fork until a soft dough forms. Flour a mat and rolling pin and roll out the dough until 1-2cm thick. Spread with a filling of your choice, sweet or savoury. Pick up pastry from one end and roll it up to the other (as shown in the photo above). Once the dough is now one big scroll, use a sharp knife to cut the scroll into 2-3cm slices. Place these lying flat on a non-stick baking tray as you cut (as shown in the photo below). Cook in an oven at 180'C fan-forced 4 for 20-25 minutes. Once cooled a little, serve.

This process can be repeated until all of the buttermilk is used. It makes approximately 2 1/2 batches. For the half batch make sure the measurements maintain that ratio of 1:2, in this case it will be 1/2:1. If you don't simplify the ratio evenly, then the dough will either be too sloppy or too hard.