That's Noice!

Hi Ladies,

The weather is starting to cool down a bit now so it’s time to get those soup recipes out of storage.

Soup is an excellent way to feed the family on a budget and it does wonders to fill you up without too many calories (that’s if you skip the dollop of sour cream!).

This soup isn’t particularly low fat but it’s super tasty.

Happy cooking! Christie x

This delicious recipe is brought to you by the lovely Christie from Fig & Cherry, our resident foodie expert on All for Women. If you’ve got a question for Christie, pop it in the comments. Otherwise, just enjoy the mouth watering recipes and helpful kitchen hints.

RECIPE

Pumpkin, chorizo and chickpea soup
serves 4

1kg Japanese pumpkin* (whole weight)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium brown onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
2 small Spanish chorizo sausages, sliced into rounds
1 litre chicken stock or water
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
sea salt and black pepper
lime and olive oil to garnish

1. Peel, de-seed and chop the pumpkin into large chunks about 3cm big.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sweat for 5 mins until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute until it is fragrant and the onion is just starting to brown at the edges.

3. Remove the pot from the heat and and leave for 1 minute. Then add the paprika and stir to combine thoroughly. It’s very important to take the pot off the heat because the paprika will taste very bitter if allowed to dry out over high heat.

4. Add the chorizo and stir to coat in the onion mixture then return to the heat with a splash of water. Cook for 2 minutes or until the chorizo begins to crisp, then add the pumpkin and stock or water. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.

5. Transfer half the soup to a blender, allow to cool slightly** and then blend until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, add the chickpeas and simmer until heated through. Taste and season. Then drizzle with olive oil and serve with lime wedges

*Japanese pumpkin is also known as Kent pumpkin. Any variety of pumpkin can be substituted.
**It’s important to allow the mixture to cool slightly before whizzing in the blender because too much steam inside the jug will cause the lid to pop off and your kitchen to turn orange! Trust me, I’ve done this before and then had little spots of pumpkin soup in every nook and cranny of my kitchen. I was very unimpressed with myself!

Hello Ladies,

Got some diced lamb in the fridge and fancy your man doing the cooking tonight? Knock these up and send him out to the backyard to fire up the barbie!

It doesn’t take long to thread the meat onto the skewers and brush them with the marinade. All you need is a little time to let the flavours mingle in the fridge while you do a quick tidy up.

Make the salad while hubby is cooking (or burning!) them on the BBQ and dinner is served. Easy!

Happy cooking! Christie x

This delicious recipe is brought to you by the lovely Christie from Fig & Cherry, our resident foodie expert on All for Women. If you’ve got a question for Christie, pop it in the comments. Otherwise, just enjoy the mouth watering recipes and helpful kitchen hints.

RECIPE

Marinated Lamb Skewers
serves 6

12 wooden or bamboo skewers
1kg lamb fillet, diced into 2cm large chunks (48 pieces total)
1 large red capsicum (pepper), diced into 2cm large chunks
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves

1. Soak the skewers in cold water for at least an hour to prevent them burning and disintegrating.

2. Thread a piece of capsicum onto a skewer and then 4 pieces of lamb. Place in a shallow dish large enough to fit all 12 skewers. Repeat with the rest of the skewers.

3. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and oregano to combine thoroughly. Pour over the lamb skewers and turn to coat. Season generously.

4. If you have time, leave to marinate in the fridge for about an hour. Otherwise BBQ or grill for 2-3 minutes each side or until done to your liking. Serve with salad and pita bread.

Hi Girls!

Here’s a great way to keep the kids occupied for a few hours. These muffins are super easy to make and you can hide a serving of fruit in them too – it’s the perfect Mummy disguise.

I used a piping nozzle for the icing but you don’t have to be so fancy, a spoon, spatula or palette knife will do the job just as well. If kids are involved then some 100s and 1000s and maybe some chocolate buttons are in order to really take these muffins to the next level.

However you decide to dress them up, make sure you enjoy every last bite.

Happy cooking! Christie x

This delicious recipe is brought to you by the lovely Christie from Fig & Cherry, our resident foodie expert on All for Women. If you’ve got a question for Christie, pop it in the comments. Otherwise, just enjoy the mouth watering recipes and helpful kitchen hints.

RECIPE

Chocolate & banana muffins w/ chocolate ricotta icing
makes 12 mini muffins (or 6 larger ones)

1 cup self raising flour
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
100g dark chocolate (70% or more), grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
125g butter, melted and kept warm
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 medium very ripe bananas, thoroughly mashed

For the icing:
400g ricotta
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs cocoa powder
1/4 cup dessicated coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and lightly flour a 12 hole mini muffin tin.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, bicarbonate soda, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Add the grated chocolate and stir to combine.

3. Make a well in the centre and add the beaten egg, warm butter, vanilla and bananas. Fold until all ingredients are just combined, taking care not to over mix. The warm butter should melt the grated chocolate and turn the batter a gorgeous brown colour.

4. Spoon mixture evenly into the 12 muffin holes and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted appears with moist crumbs. Turn out onto a rack to cool completely while you make the icing.

5. Place the icing ingredients into a clean bowl and whisk until smooth and combined. Pipe or spread onto the cooled muffins and serve.

Red wine lamb shanks with herb mash

1 cup plain flour

sea salt and black pepper

4 lamb shanks, frenched

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 brown onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 cups full bodied red wine (such as Cabernet Sauvignon)

1 cup beef or chicken stock

2 bay leaves

For the mash

4 large Desiree potatoes, diced

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup hot milk

1 tablespoon chives, chopped

1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped

sea salt and black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Place the flour, salt and pepper on a plate and stir to combine. Roll each of the lamb shanks in the flour and shake off the excess.

Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in a large, deep heavy based fry pan. Add two of the shanks and brown on all sides. Set aside on a plate, then repeat with another tablespoon of oil and the other two shanks.

In the same pan, heat the remaining olive oil, add the onion and saute for 5 minutes until just starting to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute further.

Add the wine, stock, bay leaves, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Boil rapidly for 2 minutes then remove from the heat.

Place the lamb shanks in a single layer in an oven proof casserole dish with a lid.

Pour the red wine mixture over the shanks, cover with the lid and bake for 2 1/2 – 3 hours or until the flesh comes away easily but isn’t actually falling off the bone. Check once during the cooking time to make sure there is enough liquid. If becoming too dry add a little more stock or water.

Meanwhile, make the mash.

Place the potatoes in a large pot and fill with enough cold tap water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes until tender. Drain and mash with the hot milk, butter and herbs. Taste and season, then serve with the lamb shanks.

This delicious recipe is brought to you by the lovely Christie from Fig & Cherry. Check out her foodie blog for loads of other mouth watering recipes and keep your eye our for more from Christie on All for Women in the coming months.

Ingredients

* 1 kg thick beef sausages
* 1 tbs peanut oil
* 1 medium brown onion, sliced
* 2 tbs curry powder
* 1 cup (250ml) beef stock
* 400g can diced tomatoes
* 1 cup (150g) frozen peas
* I carrot sliced
*1/2 capsicum sliced

* Serve with rice

Method

1. Place sausages in large pan, cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, boil 2 minutes. Drain sausages.
2. Heat oil in large saucepan, cook onion, stirring about 3 minutes or until soft. Add curry powder, cook, stirring about 1 minute or until fragrant.
3. Add sausages, stir to coat in curry mixture. Add stock and tomatoes, simmer, uncovered about 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Stir in peas, carrots and capsicum . Cook a further 5 minutes until thickened and peas are heated through. Serve with rice.

(if too thin for your liking mix a little cornflour with water and add…stirring)

Oh and if you want a sweet curry then I add 2 teaspoons of plum jam

serves 4

1kg. boneless chuck steak, diced
1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. butter
1 onion, sliced
1 tsp. salt and. pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1can beer
1/4 c. flour

Coat beef cubes with the 1/2 cup flour. Brown in melted butter. Drain off excess fat.

In crock pot, combine browned meat with onion, salt, pepper, garlic and beer.

Cover and cook on low 5-7 hours until meat is tender.

Turn control to high. Dissolve remaining 1/4 cup flour in small amount of water.

Stir into meat mixture, cook on high 30-40 minutes.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes and a salad