Baking Day! Pizza Scrolls, Orange Cordial and Chicken Ravioli

Today has been busy! 

My Little A is teething and has been very clingy and whingy today but we still got quite a few baking projects done and in the freezer. First off we made orange and mango cordial from scratch. Omg, it is so much better than the store bought ones - and I know what is in it.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups of orange juice, freshly squeezed

1 mango, de fleshed and processed

2 teaspoons of citric acid

3 cups water

1 cup of caster sugar

Method:

Place all ingredients into the pot and bring to the boil. Let it simmer for 10 minutes and the water level drops a little. Then strain into heatproof bottles and place it into the fridge. I have used 1/3 cup of cordial to 3/4 cup water as I don't like my cordial too sweet.

Next project was the pizza scrolls. Now I cheated on these, I purchased store bought pastry and used those instead of making pastry for my scrolls.

Ingredients:

1 zucchini

1/2 capsicum

2 mushrooms, large

2 sheets of puff pastry

1/2 can of tomato paste

1 onion

1 cup grated cheese (use a hand grater or already grated cheese)

Method:

Place all the ingredients apart from cheese, pastry and tomato paste into the food processor (use the grater blade) and process. Wait for your pastry to defrost slightly then spread the tomato paste. Add the fillings and roll till you have a cigar shaped object. Using a knife, slice into desired thickness and put onto a greased tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven set at 180 degrees C

For the chicken ravioli I used won ton wrappers instead of pasta. This gives them a really nice texture and flavour. 

Ingredients:

1 chicken fillet ( or 500g chicken mince)

1 capsicum

1 onion

1 zucchini

1 packet of won ton wrappers

1 can of chopped tomato's

Method:

Place chicken fillet, capsicum, onion, zucchini into a food processor and whizz until combined. Use the quad blade. Place half of the mince mixture into pan. Then separate the won ton wrappers and brush with water. Place other half of mince filling onto wrapper and place another wrapper on top covering the bottom one. Continue in this vein until you have as many won ton's you need. Steam or boil the won ton's until cooked through.

Cook the mince in the pan and stir through the chopped tomato's. Salt and pepper to taste. Spread over ravioli and serve with grated cheese. Enjoy!

Adventures in cheese making!

I have always thought that making cheese would be very hard to do, but I have come across a way to make a nice riccotta style cheese that is cheap and easy to do. Now this isn't anything new, many people would have been doing this over the years but this is my first foray into cheesemaking. First off, I made my own yogurt - which I described in my previous post here  then I took a tea towel and put it over a bowl. I then poured my yogurt into the tea towel and pulled the edges together and tied it up with a rubber band. You then put it into the fridge over night in a container so that the container catches the whey. Save the whey in a jar as you can add that to preserves to extend shelf life and drinks/cooking for a healthy gut. Here is what I ended up with.

 It wasn't too sour and it had a very creamy texture - overall, I loved it! In fact, I loved it so much I made more last night. It is in the fridge doing it's thing as I type. Last night's dinner was home made pizza and I sprinkled some of my cheese onto my pizza. The cheese kept it's shape nicely and tasted fantastic.

Today I will be making a cheesecake and also raviolli filling with the cheese I made last night. The raviolli filling recipe was given to me by a friend and I can't wait to try it. I will post about both when I have done them.