Tuna Bake

I know, I know. It's been a week since I last posted. I don't really have any excuses. It's my last week with my family before I go back to Brisbane so in my defence, I have been spending a lot of time with them and my friends, and haven't been near the kitchen.

In the past week I looked after my adorable cousins, went out with my high school friends till 4 in the morning (which meant I was like a walking zombie for the next few days), ate Australia's coat of arms (which my brother so happily reminded me of after I had thoroughly enjoyed a tasting plate involving emu, crocodile, kangaroo, buffalo, and barramundi), ate five beautifully cooked yabbies (the resturant gave me six, with a tomato salsa and rice, but I could only get through five), stayed up until 3 in the morning to watch Andy Murray's heroic Wimledon final, went and saw The Amazing Spiderman with my two best friends from high school (we were the only girls in the cinema without boyfriends or family members), booked my hotel in New York (I leave in less than six months now!) and my wonderful parents bought me an I-pad yesterday.

So I've had two days at home in the past week. One was spent barely leaving my bed, and reading every article about Andy Murray and how the world now loves him. Side note: I totally cried when he lost. Mostly when he started crying. He was so brave.

The other day I actually ventured into the kitchen and tried out an idea of mine, which was actually successful, so hopefully I will share that with you next week when I'm home alone and my parents and brother are at work and school.

So today's recipe is something I make frequently when I am too tired or lazy to make a proper dinner, but I still want something more substantial than toast or cereal. It is very easy - I cannot even begin to express how little you have to do here. If you can peel and cut potatoes, you can make this dinner.

In addition to being easy, it is not very time-consuming. If you cut the potatoes small, they will boil quickly, and the actual baking of the dinner does not take too much time.

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Average Cost: $

Main Ingredients: there are only really three – tuna, potato and cheese

Menu Options: You can substitute tuna for any other canned fish. I assume this would even work with fish you have already cooked – potato and fish are obvious food partners.

Serves 2 – 4 people, depending on serving size. The nutritional stats are for four servings.

What you need:

-          3 medium – large potatoes (I used Nadine, but you can use whatever type you prefer. Also, the amount of potato you use depends on how much you want – you can use less if you want).

-          2 tbsp butter

-          ¼ - ½ cup milk

-          4 tins tuna (my tins were 95 g) – I also recommend using tuna without oil or if using tuna in oil, drain the oil before using the tuna in this recipe

-          ¾ cup grated cheese, any kind – I prefer cheddar for this bake

What to do:

Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes. Place in a saucepan of boiling water (slightly salted water works best) and boil for approximately 20 minutes, or until the potato is soft.

While the potatoes are boiling, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Once the potatoes are boiled, add the milk and butter to the saucepan and mash the potatoes. You can add more or less milk depending on how creamy you want the potatoes to be.

Spray an oven proof tin with oil – this just helps with the cleaning after. I used a glass tin approximately 22 cm x 12.5 cm. Fill the bottom of the tin with tuna – spread the tuna evenly across the bottom. Use more or less tuna depending on taste and size of tin.

Spread the mashed potato over the top of the tuna. Salt the potato to taste if not salty enough.

Add the grated cheese to the top of the potato, spreading evenly.

Bake in an oven for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and slightly bubbling. The top of the mixture should be golden brown.

Simply Chocolate Cake

You can tell the rodeo is coming up soon. My town's rodeo is the biggest in Far North Queensland, and one of the most famous in Australia. The bullriders who come to our rodeo are the best in Australia. At the moment, all the caravans are trickling in and all the parks are full of them. The cowboys and station workers have descended on the town; the pubs are full of them, the shops are full of them and you can't move for the smell of dirt and smoke. Our town is not a big one, but every July, everybody comes out of the woodwork for the rodeo.

The procession, where the Rodeo Queen is elected, is next Friday. Next Saturday, my brother's birthday, is the actual rodeo. His birthday always falls on or near rodeo weekend. Everyone gets a day off work on Friday and town explodes with people; it's this time of the year you realise just what nationalities make up the town.

My family was always heavily involved in the rodeo. In fact, my great grandma was one of the women who set up the whole 'Rodeo Queen' thing. Essentially, a bunch of girls prove they can rope bulls, ride horses, and dance (both square dances and formal dances) and then they dress up and ride on the back of a truck through the procession throwing out candy (the crowd always likes the princess whose candy can last the two circuits of the procession). Then one of those Rodeo Princesses becomes the Rodeo Queen. And she gets to spend the weekend wearing cute little costumes and a sash and dancing around at the rodeo.

Needless to say, not my idea of a good time. People staring at me while I wave and smile and attempt to look pretty (this means taming my hair, so no thanks). Sounds like a nightmare.

But every year I go and watch all the princesses and try to get the best candy. It's weird because this year, I don't know many of the girls who are in the parade. I usually do, but not this year. I guess I've been away too long now.

So, this chocolate cake always makes an appearance at rodeo time. This was the cake Mum always made for me and my brother on our birthday's. Therefore, every rodeo weekend we would have some of this cake with  freshly squeezed orange juice (from our trees). So I decided now would be a great time to make and share it with you.

This cake is unlike most of the chocolate desserts I usually eat and make. It is very light and fluffy, and practically falls apart when you take it out of the oven. It is not rich, not decadent, but sweet and sugary. I find it more difficult to eat because I feel like I can taste the sugar - I prefer darker desserts. However if you like milk chocolate and lighter chocolate desserts, this is for you.

The icing is definitely icing and not ganache. It is thin, a little watery and very easy to spread over the top of the cake. It does not stick like ganache, so you can't cover the entire cake with it. However, it is absolutely perfect with this cake. It is very sweet, but it perfectly matches the fluffy cake.

Be warned, this is not healthy. But if you are looking for a simple cake to make - not a three-tierd, multiple ingredient cake which requires several tins and hours of baking time - you want this. It is simple, practically one bowl, and it never fails to please. After all, who doesn't like something that is simply chocolate?

This is my Mum's recipe - in her recipe book it is titled 'Bev's Chocolate Cake'. So I guess the credit really here goes to Bev. Thanks Bev.

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Average Cost: $

Main Ingredients: cocoa powder – for both the icing and cake.

Occasion: Dessert or a snack. It does make a very easy birthday cake if you are looking for something simple and delectable.

Menu Options: You can make this a darker, richer cake if you want. Simply add chocolate instead of cocoa powder or add chocolate chips for a darker kick. I would recommend serving this cake with milk or fresh orange juice. I know it is a very American thing to do to serve cake with milk, but here, our freshly squeezed orange juice is the perfect match for this cake.

Makes 16 slices – this is how I cut it. You can obviously cut it more or less.These are kind of small slices, but it does lower the calorie count if you are worried about that. However it remains a very high sugar dessert.

What you need:

For the cake:

-          1 ¾ cups self-raising flour

-          1 ½ cups sugar

-          ½ cup cocoa

-          ½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda/baking soda

-          ¼ teaspoon salt

-          125 grams butter, melted (I personally use margarine or canola spread – this is with every recipe I make though, and those who have tried making my food with butter have not found a significant difference, other than calorie wise. I also do all calorie counts as if I was using butter, because I know that is the more common ingredient. Just FYI.)

-          1 cup milk

-          2 eggs

For the icing:

-          1 -> 1 ½ cups icing sugar

-          ½ cup cocoa

-          ½ teaspoon butter

-          6 tbsp milk

What to do:

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and prep a large cake tin – the size is really up to you. The cake rises pretty well I have found, regardless of what tin I bake it in.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Add the melted butter and milk. Using a handheld or stand mixer, mix the ingredients for approximately two minutes. The mixture should be a light chocolate colour, but a little floury.

Add the two eggs at once. Using the mixer, mix the mixture again for two minutes. It should remain a light chocolate colour, but the mixture should have turned runny. It will not be a very thick or gloopy (for lack of a better word) mixture. It will be relatively runny for a cake.

Pour the mixture into a large cake tin and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Be careful not to burn the edges of the cake.

Leave cake to cool, out of tin. Once it has cooled completely, you can ice it.

In a medium sized bowl, sift the icing sugar and cocoa together. Stir well with a spoon. Add the butter and milk and mix together with a handheld or stand mixer. Make sure the mixture is a thin, light brown mixture.

If the mixture is still a little lumpy or dry, add more milk. If the mixture is too runny, add more icing sugar and cocoa.

If you need more icing, or you want a thicker icing than what the pictures show, add more icing sugar and cocoa in equal amounts.

Using a flat knife, spread the mixture of the top of the cake. Only spread of the top of the cake.

When the icing has dried, serve the cake. I recommend serving it with custard – this is a real guilty pleasure of mine. 

WIAW - Fairytales

My favourite fairytale when I was a kid was The Little Mermaid. Ariel was totally kickass. I was not a Cinderalla/Sleeping Beauty/Snow White fan. The Little Match Girl always made me cry, as did The Ugly Duckling. Beauty and The Beast also made me cry, though now that I'm older, I really appreciate the message of the story. We had the actual fairytales, as well as the children's versions. So I grew up knowing two versions of The Little Mermaid - one where Ariel died, one where she didn't. Either way, she was the best fairytale princess.

I am mentioning this because today and tomorrow I am looking after my two young cousins - they are 5 and 3, both girls, who both love mermaids and princess and pink and glitter pens. And I remember being exactly like that - I always wanted to be a mermaid princess with a pink tail. It's weird how you grow up - I'd still like to be a mermaid or a princess, but you couldn't make me go near pink. And these days, instead of being a princess or mermaid, I want to write about them.

In a relatively related note, my favourite legends are Robin Hood and King Arthur/Merlin. Did anyone ever watch the BBC versions of these shows? Merlin should be back for a fifth season soon, but Robin Hood ran for three seasons a few years ago. Both of these shows are absolutely amazing. I could not recommend them more - expecially if you love classic Brit TV and love the British sense of humour.

Now that I've jumped all over the place, from talking about my favourite fairytales to my favourite legends, I'll get to the point of this post. It's Wednesday, so that means it is WIAW time. I only have two pictures this time - I totally forgot to take pictures this time! As usual, a huge thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting this get together. For the month of July we are focusing on exercise as well as eating well. I have no interesting exercise news to share with you. I run every day for half an hour. That's it.

Oh, and I'm such a bad food blogger - I forgot to take pictures of this amazing lunch I had the other day in Port Douglas with the family. I don't live here (near Port Douglas) anymore, but it's gorgeous. The picture below is a view I grew up with - the Great Barrier Reef was right on my doorstep. And even in winter, the temperature in Far North Queensland hits 30 degrees. So really, there is no winter.

Here is the view from lunch where I enjoyed an oriental crepe with roasted duck as an entree, a goats cheese round encrusted with smashed macademia nuts and honey, served with a trio of tapanede (beetroot, capsicum and olive) and ciabatta for a main meal, and a macademia brownie for dessert:

This is the family - Shaun, Mum, Me and Dad (and Mum, you look great, so you can't yell at me for putting this up :)):

And yes my brother is a giant. We're not a short family.

And here is my food from yesterday. I stuck to three square meals yesterday for some reason. Breakfast was oats (unpictured as they were plain with honey). Lunch was a crumbed veal, mashed potato, cheese and tomato sauce sandwich with pumpkin on the side. It was also like a post workout meal. I don't usually eat white bread but it was all we had, and well, you just can't beat mashed potato sandwiches. I know, carb overload, but they are so amazing. Dinner was garlic butter whole wheat pasta with sauteed mushrooms and baked broccoli, topped with parmesan cheese. Dessert was a few spoonfuls of passionfruit yoghurt.

A huge thanks also goes out to my brother who redid my blog design yesterday! :)