Cooking Blog

The Klutzy Cook has moved to a new home – www.theklutzycook.com.

At the new home there is still great recipes and cooking tips, so please come and visit.

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The Klutzy Cook

Here is a couple of my favourite Blueberry Muffin Recipes.  They are a great snack with coffee and kids love them in their lunchboxes.  Also, muffins are great to freeze so make them in bulk to have plenty on hand, particularly when blueberries are in season and cheap.  Even if you are not great at baking or new to cooking, these recipes are very easy to make.

Blueberry Muffin Recipe #1

2 cups SR flour, sifted

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 180C.  Combine the flour, sugar, eggs, oil and sour cream in a bowl and mix well.  Sprinkle the mixture with the blueberries and then spoon into muffin tins.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.

Blueberry Muffin Recipe #2

2 cups SR flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg lightly beaten

1 cup milk

4 tbsp melted butter

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 200C.  Mix all dry ingredients, add milk, egg and melted butter.  Mix lightly.  Stir in the blueberries and combine gently.  Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

The Klutzy Cook’s Notes:

• Both Blueberry Muffin Recipes can make 12 large or 24 mini muffins.  Either grease the pan selected or line with muffin cases.
• Be careful not to overmix the muffin mixture as it is meant to be lumpy.
• Test if muffins are cooked by inserting a skewer.  If it comes out clean, the muffins are ready.
• Leave the muffins to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool.
• Other berries can be substituted.

I hope you and your family enjoy these Blueberry Muffin Recipes.

While I’m trying to limit the purchase of new cookbooks, two have recently made their way onto my shelves as they are two of the Best Cookbooks I’ve seen in a while.  I simply couldn’t resist and thought I’d share as they have both already been put to use, a sure sign they’ll become favourites.

Best Cookbooks

The first of my new Best Cookbooks is “Slow Cookers”, from a series called Kitchen classics .  In the cooler months my slow cooker really gets a work out.  So much so I’ve recently added a second smaller one to my collection so I can have ready made porridge for the family when we wake up.  My kids always want porridge  in winter, and because we’ve decided we like the traditional oats the best, they usually have to wait a whole 5-10 minutes while they are prepared.  Way too long for any kid!  Now the problem is solved.

Anyway, back to the Cookbooks.  I’ve already made Creamy Chicken and Corn Soup – very easy and simple using chicken thighs and fresh corn.  Another great recipe is one using lamb shanks, which are pretty difficult to mess up in the slow cooker.  This was sensational and the kitchen was filled with wonderful smells while it cooked.  Here’s the recipe.

Lamb Shanks with Tomato, Chilli and Honey

8 french trimmed lamb shanks

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 large onion, sliced

1 cup red wine

2 tsps dried oregano (I used fresh)

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (I left these out – we’re not big chilli people)

500g tomato passata (I used 1 tin diced tomatoes)

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup honey

Throw it all into the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.  Serve with rice or vegetables.

The next of the Best Cookbooks won me over not just because of the great simple recipes, but the extra hints and tips given with each recipe.  Sometimes you want a bit of extra information or to put a twist on a recipe, and this book caters for that.  It’s called “The Basics: A really useful cookbook”, by Anthony Telford.

I have already made the Tomato Soup which was a huge hit with the family using wonderful fresh tomatoes.  Also featured is “Really Useful Information” on some of the fundamental ingredients in the kitchen including selection, preparation and use.  I think this book would be a ‘really useful’ addition to any kitchen.

So there they are, two of the Best Cookbooks I’ve purchased in a while.  If you see them, have a closer look.  They are definitely worth the investment.

Shepherd's Pie with Gnocchi Topping

This recipe is a great twist on the traditional Shepherd’s Pie that a friend gave me recently.  Instead of mashed potato, the topping is gnocchi.  Still potato, still delicious.  I added more vegetables than standard Shepherd’s Pie recipes use and nobody was any wiser (i.e. children).

Ingredients:

500g beef mince
1 brown onion, chopped
1 small carrot, grated
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 cup corn kernels
1 cup beef stock
2 tbsp flour
625g packet gnocchi
½ cup cheese, grated

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.  Place meat, vegetables and stock in a saucepan.  Cook over low heat until well cooked.  Add more water if necessary.  Sprinkle flour over mixture and mix well.  Allow to thicken.  Pour into pie dish.

Add gnocchi to a pot of boiling water and remove once they float to the surface (2-3 minutes).  Drain well and spread over top of meat mixture.  Sprinkle with cheese and bake in oven until golden.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Today I’m making a lamb tagine in the slow cooker (lamb shanks cooked with chick peas, tomato, sweet potato and Moroccan spices).  I say making, as currently I’m at work and hoping like crazy that it’s all working out.

The preparation was all going well and then it happened.  The recipe required cardamom pods, not cardamom powder, but cardamom pods.  Panic.  There was plenty of powder in the pantry (although it was ridiculously out of date) but NO PODS!  There was nothing that could be done other than to proceed with the powder.  So, in it went, reluctantly sprinkled over the top while I sniffed furiously for a faint hint of cardamom fragrance and some confirmation of freshness.

This was a reminder of the problem with spices in the kitchen.  The trouble is, spices are one of those things where you see the small pack, then your eyes land on the ‘much better value’ large pack.  The value pack finds its way into the shopping trolley, and subsequently the pantry.  Then the next dilemma is there is usually no way the ‘value pack’ can be used up before the expiry date.  And many times it will compact into an unusable block even before the expiry date.

Another problem with spices, is that unlike herbs, it’s not easy to have a spice ‘garden’.  You can’t just duck down to the backyard and snip a few cumin seeds or nutmeg pods.   And chances are if you could, the spices you needed wouldn’t be growing in the back yard anyway as there are that many spice ‘blends’ these days, it can be difficult to know what goes in where.

Spice blends are another breed of their own.  Today there are blends representing all types of cuisines and flavours and it can be hard to keep up.  But you can guarantee that the one spice or spice blend you need won’t be in the pantry – another one to add to the inventory.

Despite their problems, spices are wonderful and cooking would not be the same without the fantastic fragrances and flavours they add.  I just wish they were a bit easier to deal with at times – but that’s just me.

And I bet the lamb tagine is sensational, despite the cardamom.