Macaroni Salad

 

🥗 Macaroni Salad with Peas & Carrots

Ingredients

• 2 cups elbow macaroni (dry)
• 1 cup peas (frozen or canned)
• 1 cup carrots, finely diced or shredded
• ¾ cup mayonnaise
• 1–2 tbsp vinegar (white or apple cider)
• 1 tbsp sugar (optional, for a slightly sweet taste)
• ½ tsp salt (or to taste)
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• Optional add‑ins:
  • ¼ cup chopped onion or scallions
  • 1–2 tbsp sweet relish
  • 1 tbsp mustard
  • A pinch of paprika

Sardines on Toast

•  Toast
• Sardines
• Onion
• Vinegar
• Pepper
• Capers
• Salt

• Remove bones from sardines, keep oil, mash to flake
• Add salt, pepper, capers
• Pickle onions in vinegar
• Toast bread
• Enjoy

Pasta and Mushroom Sauce - Campbell's soup

 1 can (10.5 oz) Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

½ to 1 cup milk (adjust for desired consistency)

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1-2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 tsp garlic powder)

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Optional: 2 tablespoons butter, cream cheese, fresh parsley, or Italian seasoning 

Combine ingredients In a saucepan or large skillet, combine the mushroom soup, milk, Parmesan cheese, minced garlic, and black pepper.

Heat and simmer Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent lumps and ensure the cheese melts smoothly.

Adjust consistency Reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. If too thin, a little cornstarch slurry can help.

Serve Pour the finished sauce over your favorite cooked pasta (like fettuccine or penne) and serve hot. Garnish with extra Parmesan and fresh parsley if desired. 

Pan Flatbread

 https://www.recipetineats.com/easy-soft-flatbread-yeast/

• 2 cups plain flour (all purpose flour) (level cups, unsifted, not packed), + keep 1/4 cup extra for dusting & adjusting dough
• ▢1/2 tsp salt
• ▢3 1/2 tbsp / 50g unsalted butter (1.75 oz)
• ▢3/4 cup milk

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Instructions

• Melt butter in milk: Combine butter and milk and heat until butter is just melted – on stove or in microwave.
• Combine Dry: Combine 2 cups flour, salt, butter and milk in a bowl.
• Knead 2 minutes: Sprinkle work surface with flour then knead for a few minutes until it is smooth – it doesn't need much kneading. Add extra flour if the dough is too sticky.
• Rest 30 minutes: Wrap with cling wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes or so.
• Roll into rounds: Dust bench top with flour, cut dough into 6 pieces, roll into balls, then roll out into 20cm / 8" rounds, 2 – 3 mm thick.
• Heat pan: Heat a non stick pan over high heat (no oil). (Note 1)
• Cook: Place one flatbread in the pan, cook for around 1- 1 1/2 minutes – it should puff up dramatically. Once the underside has nice golden patches on it, flip and cook the other side for 45 seconds to 1 minute until the underside has golden spots and it puffs up again.
• Keep wrapped in tea towel: Stack the cooked bread and keep wrapped with a tea towel – the moisture helps soften the surface, making them even more pliable. Continue to cook with remaining pieces.
• Brush with butter or oil (optional): Brush or spray bread with olive oil or melted butter, for a more luxurious finish. Or even with melted butter mixed with minced garlic for a garlic butter version!

Recipe Notes:

1. Higher heat and the thinner the dough = crispier crust, though still pliable inside, the thin crispy crust on the outside might crack when you roll it. This is how I make naan. The larger darker brown spots on the bread (see image in post) make it look like authentic naan, just like what you get at Indian restaurants! (If you got the time, here’s my proper naan recipe made with yeast. It’s just like you get at Indian restaurants – super soft and fluffy!)

2. STORING: Dough keeps in the refrigerator for around 3 days. Tip: Roll out the rounds, ready to cook. Just make sure you use baking paper or cling wrap to keep the pieces separated, flour will not suffice.

Cooked breads keep really well in the freezer!

3. Wholemeal flour – Works great with WHOLE WHEAT flour, does not work with almond flour. See note 4 for Gluten Free.

4. Dairy free / vegan substitutions: A reader tried the original recipe then reported back that it also worked just as great substituting the butter with olive oil and almond milk for the dairy milk to make it a vegan / dairy free version. Brilliant! Another reader has also made this with coconut oil and reported it works great.

5. Gluten free option – This works pretty well with Gluten Free flour. You may need a bit of extra flour to roll it out – just add more as required. The texture is a bit different – a bit chewy, and you may not be able to roll them out into neat rounds like pictured. 

6. Use this for: Gyros, Souvlaki, as naan for curries like Butter Chicken, Chickpea Curry or Beef Rendang.

Chinese Food Order for 20 persons

• 1 portion egg fried rice (feeds 12)
• 1 portion white rice (feeds 12)
• 1 portion chinese veg (feeds 12)
• 2 Beef Ho Fun (Beef and rice noodles) (1 feeds 4)
• 2 Dozen fried shrimp wantons
• 1 portion Chicken
• 1 portion crispy skin pork
• 1 portion fried squid
• 3 Egg rolls

Drinks

• 1 case water
• 1 case coke
• 1 case apple j/assorted drinks
• 1 case beer
• 2 bag Ice
• forks, plates, cups, napkins

Crispy pork skin crackling chicharrones

dry as much as possible

 Cut up the pork skin into inch size pieces, 

Place skin side up

Put in air fryer or oven for 10 mins at 450 on turbo or broil

Christmas Cookies

 

Ingredients

• ▢225g / 1 cup unsalted butter , softened (or use salted, skip salt)
• ▢1 cup caster/superfine sugar (granulated/ordinary white sugar ok too)
• ▢1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢1 large egg (55-60g / 1.9-2oz)
• ▢3 cups flour , plain / all purpose
• ▢3/4 tsp baking powder
• ▢3/4 tsp salt

Icing for Sugar Cookies

• ▢Icing for Sugar Cookies

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Instructions

• Preheat Oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy (1 minute on speed 5)
• Add egg and vanilla, beat until completely combined.
• Add flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Start mixing slowly, then beat until the flour is incorporated – it will be clumpy.
• Dust work surface with flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Pat together then cut in half, then shape into 2 discs.
• Roll out to 0.3cm / 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 0.6cm / 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies), sprinkling with flour under and over the dough so it doesn't stick.
• Use cookie cutters to press out shapes and use a knife or spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheets. (Keep dough that doesn’t fit in the oven in the fridge).
• Bake for 12 minutes, swapping trays halfway (Note 2), until the surface is pale golden and the edges are just beginning to turn light golden.
• Allow cookies to cool completely on trays (they will finish cooking on the trays).

Decorating options:

• Icing – see Icing for Christmas Cookies recipe.
• Melt chocolate then dip the surface into chocolate.
• Dot with icing sugar and decorated with silver balls
• Dust with icing sugar
• Serve plain! They are sweet vanilla biscuits so they are wonderful eaten just as they are!

Add sprinkles before baking, or use icing after

Icing:

• ▢500g / 1 lb PURE icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted (plus extra for adjusting) (Note 1)
• ▢1/4 cup egg whites (~3 eggs) (Note 2)
• ▢2 tbsp corn syrup (or 1.5 tbsp glucose syrup, Note 3)
• ▢1 – 1 1/2 tbsp water , plus more as needed

Colouring:

• ▢Food Dye – liquid or gel , go by eye for quantity (Note 4)

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Instructions

• Place Icing ingredients in a large bowl, starting with 1 tablespoon water, and beat for 1 minute on speed 5 until smooth and glossy (start on low then speed up).
• Divide icing into different bowls for colouring. Add food dye and mix – keep adding colouring until you achieve the colour you are after. If icing gets too thin, add more icing sugar.
• Icing consistency test: Should be able to draw a figure 8 on the surface and you can see if for 2 seconds before sinking in and disappearing. Should be thick enough to pipe details but thin enough to spread smoothly on surface of cookie. ADJUST icing – thinner with water (1/2 tsp at a time), thicker with more icing sugar.

PIPING:

• Transfer icing into disposable piping bags or ziplock bags.
• Snip the TINIEST bit off the corner. Smaller hole = better detail in icing. Remember: You can cut hole bigger, but not smaller! OR using very thin piping nozzle.
• Pipe decorations on cookies as desired.
• Decorate with sprinkles etc while wet (so they stick). Or dry completely before piping on details.
• To fill a large surface, use toothpick to spread.