Brownies and Rhubarb Cake

EDIT - now the brownie recipe is included, below...

So sorry about the absence - Tabitha and the cats collaborated in a joint project of somehow flinging the computer across the sofa, snapping the little USB internet thingy.  So I was without internet for a week - scary times.  No matter - now I have a fancy Telstra broadband hub thing, it is super fast and excellent.

Yesterday, our wonderful midwives Jan and Kelly held a working bee for their new midwifery clinic (the first of its kind in Australia!) called MAMA, a.k.a. Midwives and Mothers Australia.  The Daddy, Tabitha and I trooped along to help out - The Daddy did some excellent painting, I baked some bits and pieces and brought along a mountain of egg sandwiches, and Tabitha helped out by being generally adorable and also passing the odd screwdriver as required.

Here she is washing the windows with two sponges, having a grand old time:

I baked a rhubarb cake, improvising with my favourite 'old standby' apple cake recipe, but with pureed rhubarb as the filling.

To bake the cake, simply cook about 6 stems of rhubarb, sliced into 1cm pieces, with around half a cup of water and a few tablespoons of sugar.  Once tender, pour off the excess water and mash to a rough puree with a fork.  Taste it - you want it to be quite tart, but not shockingly sour.  About the same as cooked, unsweetened apple.  Add a little more sugar if you think it needs it.  Add a tiny drop or two of pink food colouring if your rhubarb is particularly wan looking.

Mix in a bowl 120g wholemeal self-raising flour, 115g ordinary self-raising flour, 150g sugar, an egg, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 125g of melted butter.  Press 3/4 of the mixture into a greased and lined 20-22cm round springform, then carefully spread the rhubarb puree over the top.  Next, use your fingers to flatten out pieces of the remaining 1/4 of the mixture, placing it over the top of the puree.  Sprinkle the top generously with demerera (or plain) sugar and some cinnamon, then bake at 180 degrees for around 45 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on top.

See how lovely the vibrant rhubarb looks:

Here is the top layer of cake, with little bits of rhubarb poking through, sprinkled with the sugar and cinnamon:

When baked, the top layer of mixture will spread, covering any gaps:

The rhubarb makes for a very pretty cake, and the sourness of the rhubarb offsets the fairly sweet cake nicely:

I also made chocolate brownies.  I am not even slightly exagurating when I say that these are The Best thing that I have ever made.  Ever.  They were so gooey, richly chocolatey and perfectly thick and fudgey.  They have walnuts, and some dark chocolate chips.  The batch produced around 50 or so small squared of brownie.  They are completely worth making!

The recipe is just slightly adapted from the brownie recipe in the 'Chocolate' section of Nigella Lawson's brilliant 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess' book, which is now more than a decade old.  It is a book which gets used almost weekly in our kitchen, with many of its recipes in regular rotation - the madeira and seed cakes, the rosemary loaf cake, the American pancakes, the steamed syrup sponge, Granny Boyd's biscuits and the sponge drops are all favourites in my kitchen.

I have peered at the photograph of the brownies in the book so often - read through the recipe, thought about making them.  I have absolutely no idea why I have never made them before now - they are straightforward, and life-changingly good!

Easily The World's Best Chocolate Brownies

375g unsalted butter

375g high quality dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70 per cent this time)

6 large eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (that's right people, a tablespoon, not a teaspoon)

500g caster sugar (of course, I used my standard vanilla-infused caster sugar)

225g plain flour

1 teaspoon of salt

350g chopped walnuts (you could use salted peanuts, that would be pretty awesome, or hazelnuts)

A good handful of dark chocolate chips (you could use white or milk if you prefer)

Line the base and sides of a 23cm x 33cm tin with baking paper.

Melt the butter and the chocolate together over low heat in a large heavy-based saucepan.

In a large-ish bowl, beat the eggs together well with the sugar and vanilla.

Measure the flour and salt into another bowl.

When the chocolate mixture has smoothly melted, set aside to cool for a bit, then beat in the eggs and sugar, then the flour and then the nuts and chocolate chips.  Beat well with a wooden spoon to combine, and then scrape the lot into the prepared pan.

Nigella says to bake at 180 degrees for around 25 minutes, however I must say that, even with my super-powerful oven, I needed nearly 40 minutes.  Why?!  I don't know.  Normally I need less time than recipes specify, so I will still be checking from 25 minutes next time.  I must stress, however, that it is important not to overcook them - even a few minutes too long will result in dry brownies (very, very sad).

When the brownies are done, the top should be set, turned into a pale, smooth and glossy thin crust, while the middle will still be dense and goey - a cake tester should come out clean-ish around the edges, but still somewhat goopy in the middle (they will continue to cook and set as they cool down).

Allow the brownies to cool completely in the tin - it is perfectly fine to let the tin sit on the kitchen bench overnight (preferably sitting on top of a cooling rack).  If you lined the tin well with baking paper, you should be able to use it to carefully lift the entire slab of brownie out at once, then cut into squares on a board with a large knife.

If, at worst, your middle section is still a little too gloopy to cut into neat brownies, do not despair!  Simply wrap the soft section in some foil, heat in the oven, and eat with ice cream.  In fact, I recommend intentionally leaving the middle section a little undercooked for this purpose - the mixture makes plenty, so you will still have dozens of brownies!

Here is the back view of the fabulous MAMA centre - it is an amazing space, light-filled and enormous, with a large backyard outdoor area.  Lots of families and babies came down to help, and we all had a whole lot of fun helping out.

Tabitha napped in her pram, parked outside in the shade - we found a spot where The Daddy could peer out and watch her sleep through an open window while he painted:

Those of you who are scared by small harmless pythons, a quick heads-up to avert your eyes now.  Here is a gorgeous little photo of our baby Marilyn (who is coming up to one year old now!), wrapped neatly around my pony tail while I sat on the sofa:

Lush and Scaley

Went out for a coffee and shopping this morning with a friend (and her beautiful, cheerful and stylishly dressed baby!) at Chadstone, and managed to run a whooole lot of 'to do' errands from my list as well.  Productive day.

Managed to run out of most of my skincare all at once, which meant a stop in to LUSH.  I have used bits and pieces from Lush in the past, and generally liked their stuff, however when I was pregnant, my skin went kinda crazy (dry, sensitive and breakouts), and Lush was really my savior!  I tried loads of products, and am now pretty loyal to my Lush picks.

Below, clockwise from top left, is Angels on Bare Skin cleanser, Ambrosia shaving cream, Eau Roma Water, a couple of free samples (Lovely Jubblies breast cream and Miranda soap), Ultrabland cleanser, Oatifix mask and Paradise Regained moisturiser.

NOTE - sorry, below links are to the US and UK sites, since the AU site is down.

• Angels on Bare Skin is a gentle, moisturising and nourishing exfoliating cleanser.  It's Lush's biggest selling cleanser worldwide, and is so simple - just ground almonds, clay, lavender oil, rose, chamomile and Tagetes oils, fresh lavender flowers, and some glycerin.
• Ambrosia is TD's shaving cream - really gentle and soothing.
• I buy the Eau Roma spray, which is just lavender water and rose waters, because it is nice and cheap.  I used to use Jurlique rosewater spray, but it was more than double the price
• Ultrabland is a really hardcore cleanser!  It's a thick, waxy mixture of almond oil, rosewater, beeswax, honey and a few plant extracts.  It's sort of a hassle to use (you have to massage it in for a minute or so, then steam it off with a hot wet cloth) but it is totally worth it, especially if your skin is freaking out.  I use it about every second day (I use Angels every morning, and either Ultrabland or plain Cetaphil in the evenings).  Ultrabland is excellent at removing even heavy makeup.
• I used to adore the Brazened Honey mask, but it's way too intense for my now-sensitive skin.  I love the Oatifix mask now - it softens, moisturises, calms and deep-cleanses, and just contains oatmeal, fresh organic bananas, glycerin, ground almonds, illipe butter, clay, vanilla and some other oils and natural ingredients.  You have to keep it in the fridge, and a pot only lasts a few weeks, but it is a brilliant mask and smells delicious to apply!
• I've mentioned Paradise Regained, my moisturiser, before.  It's firming and full of natural fruit enzymes, which keep skin smooth and bright - it's supposed to be an anti-ageing moisturiser, but it works perfectly on my skin, keeping things soft and clear.  As well as pineapple enzymes, it contains fresh green grapes, green tea, organic cocoa butter, almond oil, and quite a few natural oils and infusions.

I find you get great 'bang for your buck' at Lush, because the products are exceptionally good, packed full of organic and natural high quality active ingredients, with no 'fillers' and gums, mineral oils etc.  Pretty much NO money goes into their packaging or advertising, so you are really paying for the high quality products.  Much more eco-friendly packaging, too, than most brands, and every time you return 5 little black tubs, you get a free face mask!

I was folding and hanging Tabitha's washing this afternoon when I noticed it is all very coordinated.  I never thought much about how her clothes go together, but now I realise that 90 per cent of what I buy all matches with each other.  I stick to navy, blue, and pale and dark pinks.  This is partially because these are the colours that suit her (reds, greens and brighter colours wash her out), but it is also very handy to stick to one colour palette, as it means that everything can go with each other, in a very 'This goes with that' Sussan sort of way!

I thoroughly recommend this approach to baby clothes - it means that dressing her is a breeze, since you can generally grab any few items from her wardrobe (pants, top and coat, for example) and they will go together well.  It helps to buy most of her clothes from just a couple of shops, too, since each store tends to stick to one or two main colour palettes.  I buy almost all of Tabitha's 'everyday' clothes at Country Road and Seed.  The quality is excellent, too - I have never had a button come off, or anything pill, fade or stretch.

Now that Tabby is crawling, dresses aren't so practical (since her knees get caught on the dress), and she goes through lots more pants, since the knees get quite filthy!  So her current wardrobe (which should do her through Autumn and Winter) consists of:

• 3 pairs of patterned baggy/harem type pants
• 5 pairs of leggings (navy, pale pink, pale pink stripes, silver/grey marle and navy stripes)
• 5 long-sleeve tops (a couple of Henley-style, and some pretty long-sleeve t-shirts with detailing)
• 3 cardigans (white with a simple bow on the pocket, pink with a white stripe around the middle, with sleeves that can button up, and another pale pink plain one)
• 2 hand knitted jackets
• 1 lovely cashmere pale pink cable knit poncho (gift)
• 1 pale pink, soft and padded reversible woolen button-up jacket with a hood (very warm and snuggly)
• A pale pink wool beanie with ear-flaps
• A pink and cream stripe wool beanie
• A couple of dresses with tights for any special occasions
• About 6 pairs of socks
• About 6 singlets
  
• Finally, I am going to go and buy a couple of pairs of soft-soled shoes, now that she is 'walking' around the furniture, holding on, and likes to do this outside.  Bare feet are fine in summer, but she needs some shoes for winter.  I will get them from Bobux, who do excellent children's shoes.

I would say that's a fairly thorough wardrobe, without being over-the-top.  As the weather gets colder, I might add a woolen jumper or two, and I will simply layer her long-sleeve tops with singlets underneath.

In other news - our beautiful Diamond Python, Marilyn, is growing - she is still quite tiny, but is a voracious eater and is lovely to handle.

Sunday Paella

Lazy Sunday - went to the Prahran Market in the morning with The Daddy and Tabitha, then had a couple of friends come over, then had my parents, sister, godfather and godson over for dinner.  I made seafood paella for dinner - my godfather gave me a whopping bit paella pan for Christmas a few years back, and it's always a great meal to make when there's a bit of a crowd.

Here is how I make paella:

9 cups of water

500g clams (vongole) purged of sand (soak in cold water with 2 big pinches of salt for at least 30 minutes)

500g mussels, scrubbed and debearded

2 fillets of firm-fleshed white fish (I used Rockling today) cut into 2 inch pieces

A few tablespoons of flour with a good amount of salt and pepper mixed through

Extra virgin olive oil

1 green capsicum, cored, de-seeded, and cut into 1 inch pieces

500g cuttlefish or squid, cleaned and cut into 1 inch pieces

20 raw head-on large prawns in their shells

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

5 ripe tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika

20 - 30 saffron threads, lightly toasted in a dry pan for a couple of minutes, then ground to a powder (rub in a piece of baking paper)

3 cups paella rice (or short-grain rice)

In a medium saucepan, boil 5 cups of water, add clams and a teaspoon of salt.  Reduce heat and simmer, half-covered, for half an hour.  Set aside with clams WITH their water (throw out any that don't open).

Put the mussels in a medium saucepan with a cup of water, bring to boil, simmer, uncovered, until the mussels have opened (about 3-5 minutes).  Throw out any that don't open.  Set aside the mussels with their water.

In a large paella pan (mine is about 60cm or so across), coat the bottom with around 8 tablespoons of oil, and heat.  Dredge the pieces of fish in the seasoned flour, then pan-fry in the oil, turning once, until lightly browned.  Set aside.

Remove any solids in the paella pan, then, in the same oil, add the capsicum and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes, stirring, until it starts to brown and becomes fragrant.  Add the cuttlefish and cook, about 5 minutes, stirring, and scraping anything that sticks to the pan.  Add the prawns and cook on both sides until pink.

Lower the heat to medium, and add the garlic, tomatoes and 2 pinches of salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes have darkened and the mixture is a nice sludgy 'sofrito' paste (abour 10 - 15 minutes).

While this is cooking, strain the broth from the mussels and clams into a jug, adding enough plain water to make up around 8 cups of liquid in total.  

Pull off and discard one side of each clam shell (the side not attached to the clam).  When the sofrito is ready, sprinkle in the paprika and saffron powder, stirring over heat for a minute while the flavours penetrate and meld.  Remove the prawns, set aside with the fish, clams and mussels.

Add the clam water/plain water (8 cups), bring to the boil, and taste for seasoning, adding more salt as needed.  Sprinkle the 3 cups of rice evenly over the paella pan.  With a wooden spoon, check to see that the rice is evenly distributed across the pan.  Do NOT stir again!

Lay the pieces of fish, prawns, mussels and clams over the top (you can do this in a pretty pattern, or just keep it rustic, depending on your mood).  Cook, uncovered, for 8 minutes over high heat, then a further 10 - 15 minutes over medium heat, or until the rice is cooked (still having a fair amount of 'bite', you don't want it too soft).

The paella rice will be fairly dry at the end, and there will be an almost-burnt, crispy dry layer of rice on the bottom - this is the best part!  Remove from the heat, then cover with some paper towels and let rest for 5 minutes.  Squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the top before serving.  When serving, make sure you scrape some of the bottom crispy part into each serving.  

I cannot possibly tell you how good this smells (and tastes) - I had to shoo out a crowd of people from my kitchen, all trying to steal a taste out of the pan while it was cooking.  The smokey, intense paprika and salty seafood smell permeates the whole house.  It is intoxicating.

Here is Tabitha eating a prawn from the paella - it was delicious and spiced and smokey and she ate the whole thing!

My Tips:

• Prepare the mis en plas well before starting cooking - preparing the clams, cutting everything up, cleaning the squid, toasting the saffron etc., can easily take over an hour if you do it at a leisurely pace.  Once everything is prepared and in the bowls ready to go, cooking is dead easy and very straightforward:

 

• My paella pan is far too big for a single burner, so I straddle it across my fish burner and two of the regular burners, turning every now and then to ensure the heat is even.
• Sometimes you need to add a little extra water, if the rice is not yet cooked and there is no liquid left - but just a cup or less of boiling water, sprinkled over, should do it.  And remember paella is dry, not wet like risotto.
• You can mix up the seafoods if you want - just use what looks good at the market.  Sometimes yabbies, bugs, you can even add some browned chicken thigh or rabbit (cook in the same way as the fish).
• You can buy excellent smoked sweet paprika and saffron from Casa Iberica in Collingwood (25 Johnston Street) - and, for that matter, paella pans.  For some reason, people often give me Spanish ingredients as a hostess gift (seriously - it's happened too often to be a coincidence!), so I have a bit of a stash.  This Bomba rice is the shiz:

We had some baklava and assorted similar sweets for dessert:

My friend Ruby came over this afternoon too - she is studying photography part time, and came to take some photos of Tabitha.  Here is one she took - she will send through more in the next few days hopefully:

And here is Ruby holding Marilyn - she went from being very nervous to completely in love, in the space of about a minute!  Now she wants a diamond python too - see, diamonds are a girl's best friend:

Gluten Free, New Toys and Nappies, and More Marilyn...

My friend Amy is on a gluten free diet.  This is generally thought to be a bad thing, if you are into food - gluten free 'imitations' of regular food, such as bagels, tend to be really tough and wrong.  I don't know much about gluten free eating, however I thought I would share the recipe for the delicious nut-based 'museli' that Amy is eating for breakfast lately.  It is incredibly yummy, healthy, and works equally well as a museli as it does as a topping for yoghurt or sprinkled on top of muffins, cakes or fruit crumbles prior to baking.

• 1/4 cup of flaxseed
• 3/4 cup of almonds (toasted or raw)
• 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup of pecans
• 1/4 cup of walnuts
• 1/2 cup of dried apple (you could certainly add other dried fruits such as dates or dried cranberries)
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
• 1 - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine all of the above in a food processor, and give a fair few pulses to ensure everything is chopped and combined.  Amy came over and did a batch with FOUR TIMES the above quantities - see below photos, and know that my food processor is massive.

Store the mixture in the fridge, because otherwise the ground nuts will go rancid.  If you would like to 'lighten up' the mixture for breakfast cereal, you could combine it with some puffed rice or bran (obviously bran is not gluten free).

For a warm Bircher-style breakfast, soak one cup of mixture with 1/2 cup of milk or soy milk overnight.  In the morning, heat in a pan or microwave, and add more hot milk or soy milk to taste.

Another gluten free must is the incredible and inspirational blog Gluten Free Girl - http://glutenfreegirl.com/ .  Honestly, her blog and book are well worth a look, even if you are a fan of gluten (like me!) because most of the recipes are completely delicious, and a far cry from the 'fake gluten' type products you find in health stores.

In other news - Tabitha and I went to Chadstone shopping centre yesterday, to run some errands, and I bought her some new toys (now that she is crawling, sitting and even pulling herself up to STAND UP, she is ready for different types of toys).  She really enjoyed playing with the Fisher Price Peek-a-Blocks during our stay at the O'Connell Centre, so I got some of them, as well as some cute musical spheres and an activity cube that she can stand up and lean on while she plays.  The Peek-a-Blocks are clear blocks, each with a moving scene or object within - for example, a train that turns around through a tunnel, a puppy with a wagging tail, a snowman with little loose 'snowflakes' or a chicken that squeaks when you press the top of the block.

Predictably, Tabitha was more interested in playing with the little cardboard box that came in the pack, as opposed to the actual toys.  Kids huh?!

I think I mentioned that my garden is going brilliantly - see below one of the MASSIVE zucchinis which we have grown.  For scale, the tomato in front of it is just a regular cherry tomato:

The nappies we use are Itti Bitti d'Lish (mostly All-in-Ones with some Snap-in-Ones).  About a week ago, Itti Bitti released some of their coveted Limited Edition prints, and I quickly snapped up a couple.  Below is one of the LE prints which arrived during the week - so cute!  If you are interested to try out modern cloth nappies (MCNs), a good way to start is to buy an Itti Bitti Trial Pack, which contains one of each of the d'Lish styles.

I will dedicate a whole post to MCNs soon.

Last but not least - a couple more photos of our new baby Marilyn the Diamond Python.  She is so pretty, and already calm and placid despite being a baby:

Look at how incy-wincy and delicate she is:

Perfect day for the Farmers' Market!

Woke up to a stunning day - clear blue skies, warm sunshine and a cheerful baby.  The Daddy is at work, so Tabitha and I went down to the Boroondara Farmers' Market with my friend Amy, and my parents and sister.

Look how nice it was down there this morning!  Aside from whatever fruit/veg/meat I happen to need, things that I routinely get at the Market are:

• Rhubarb for Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie, and for rhubarb muffins
• Berries - blueberries, strawberries, raspberries when in season.  I never liked blueberries until I tasted the incredible organic ones at the market one day!
• VBK Veggieburgers - they are SO good, full of grated veggies with no 'filler', and they cook beautifully, with a crispy outside, on a panini press.  They also have gluten free for those gf people (like Amy).
• Eggs from Green Eggs
• A spinach and feta golzeme, and a decaf coffee, for breakfast.  Always.
• A fresh squeezed orange juice - on hot days, you can buy them semi-frozen into a delicious slurry.
• Walnuts from the friendly walnut man (this turned into the World's Most Awkward Conversation this morning - dad, making small-talk with the vendor, commented "and I hear walnuts are excellent for preventing prostate cancer!" to which the 50-something male vendor replied, "they didn't stop me from getting prostate cancer".  Cue awkward silence.  Dad bought loads of walnuts then - I think he felt bad!
• Bacon, chorizo and sausages from Fernleigh Farms

Today, I also got a few kilograms of beautiful ripe peaches (some for eating, some for a peach and custard pie).  I didn't need to get any tomatoes or zucchini, because our plants are going CRAZY in the backyard.

Here is Tabitha eating some spinach and feta Golzeme in the shade of her pram:

We bumped into my former boss, her husband, and her lovely little daughter.  They also had their beautiful and exhuberant standard poodle, Jet - I was there when Jet first came home as a puppy, and used to see her everyday, so it was really nice to see her.  I'm sure she remembered me - she jumped up onto her back legs and pawed at me furiously!  Very cute.

Tabby wore a Rock Your Baby romper, which Amy bought her as a gift last year.  It always elicits loads of comments from people - she looks just like Minnie Mouse!

Tabitha really likes our trips to the Farmers' Market - lots of puppies, smiling faces, new foods to try and other children and babies.  Here we are having a play with a bag of walnuts:

My sister (9) discovered a fantastic stall selling blended frozen fruit - you choose your fruit (she chose strawberries, banana and mango), they feed it into the freezeing-and-blending-machine, and it comes out as an incredible sorbet-type dessert!  Nothing else in it but pure fruit!  I am very impressed.  I would like one of these machines at home.  Tabitha tried some of the frozen fruit, and seemed to quite like it too.

Oh - speaking of markets, I don't think I've mentioned that last weekend, The Daddy and I took Tabitha to the Queen Victoria Market to check out the sights and sounds, and ended up buying a baby Diamond Python at the fantastic Upmarket Aquarium!  We had been looking for a new python for quite a while (we used to have a Spotted Python, Noodle, and I have a Bearded Dragon called Atticus), and when we handled this beautiful baby, her temperament was just incredible - calm, confident, not at all snappy for a baby!  So we brought her home, and she is settling in nicely.  She is only a few months old, around 50cm long and as thick as my index finger.  She will get to somewhere between 4 - 10 feet, but probably around 6 feet.

The Daddy suggested calling her Marilyn ("Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend") and I agreed that it is a good name - if she turns out to be a boy (no way to know until over a year old) she can be named for Marilyn Manson haha...

Here is a quick photo - I don't want to disturb her too much in her initial weeks, while she settles in, so I will get some better photos next week.