Month: August 2013

This is another delicious afternoon-tea-cake idea for dad this weekend…

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

– 150g unsalted butter, softened
– 80g (⅓ cup) caster sugar
– 4 eggs, at room temperature
– ½ cup Apricot Blush Syrup
– Zest of 1 lime
– 250g (1⅔ cup) plain flour
– 1 tsp baking powder
– Extra butter and flour for greasing and dusting the tin

For the icing:

– ¼ cup icing sugar
– 1 tbsp Apricot Blush Syrup

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan-forced, 350F, gas mark 4).

2. Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

3. Add eggs and continue mixing on a lower speed for another minute.

4. Slowly pour in Apricot Blush Nectar and add lime zest, flour and baking powder and mix on a lower setting until the batter is just combined and smooth.

5. Grease a 22cm bundt cake tin (ring shape) with extra butter and dust with extra flour. Shake off excess flour.

6. Pour prepared batter around the tin and smooth out with a spoon or a spatula.

7. Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

8. Remove from oven and turn the cake out onto a serving plate.

9. Mix together the icing sugar and Apricot Blush Nectar to make the icing.

10. Drizzle the icing over the warm cake and serve immediately

Tips and Tricks:

Store leftover cake in an air-tight container. Reheat any unused portions in the microwave for 20 seconds before serving.

If your dad has a sweet tooth he will absolutely love a little plate of these homemade jellies on Father’s Day…

Ingredients:

– 3 tbsp gelatine
– 1/3 cup water 
– 2/3 cup Barker’s Crushed NZ Apricot Blush Fruit Syrup

Method:

1. Sprinkle the gelatine over the water and give it a stir.

2. Leave for a minute or two until thickened.

3. Pour 3/4 cup Barker’s Apricot Blush into a saucepan and add the gelatine. Keep stirring as it heats until the gelatine has completely dissolved.

4. Pour into a 20cm x 14cm ceramic dish which has been rinsed in cold water. Leave to set approx 3 hours in the fridge until very firm.

5. Use small (cookie) cutters to cut the apricot jelly into shapes.

Tips and Tricks:

Present the jellies on a beautiful plate like this hand-decorated one to personalize your gift:

You can’t beat a delicious fruit loaf when it comes to a snack. This recipe would be great for a Sunday arvo Father’s Day afternoon tea.

Ingredients:

– 1/2 cup Barker’s Crushed NZ Apricot Blush
– 400g sultanas
– 125g butter
– 1 tsp mixed spice
– A few drops of almond essence
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 3/4 cup of brown sugar
– 1/2 cup of cold water
– 2 beaten eggs
– 2 cups of flour
– 1 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Soak sultanas in Barker’s Apricot Blush overnight or for as long as possible.

2. Place sultanas, butter, mixed spice, baking soda, sugar, water and almond essence in a saucepan and bring to the boil

3. Simmer gently for 5-10 minutes – remove from heat and leave to cool.

4. When cool add eggs, flour and baking powder.

5. Lightly grease 2 15cm x 8cm loaf tins with cooking oil and line with baking paper and divide loaf mixture evenly between them.

6. Bake the loaves for 40 minutes at 180 deg C. (To test whether the loaves are cooked insert a skewer into the centre – if the skewer comes away clean, the loaves are ready. If not leave to bake for a few minutes longer and test again).

7. When the loaves have cooled, turn out onto a rack and leave them to become cold before slicing.

Tips and tricks:

If the tops of the loaves start to brown too much during cooking, cover them with tinfoil to  prevent burning.
The loaf is best sliced cold – leave overnight before slicing if you can resist.

This recipe was created by Lyn Potter. Check out more of Lyn Potter’s recipes on focussedonfood.blogspot.co.nz

See more at: http://www.barkers.co.nz/recipes/fruit-syrups/sultana-and-blush-loaf/#sthash.XhFwMxrU.dpuf

Amongst the items in my Dad’s birthday parcel last year was a jar of homemade muesli. Muesli is really easy to make at home (and often cheaper than buying from the supermarket), and you can customize it to suit your personal taste.

Ingredients:

• 400 grams of rolled oats
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup wheatgerm (optional)
• few drops of vanilla essence
• 1/4 cup Barker’s Crushed NZ Apricot Blush Fruit Syrup
• 1/4 cup peanut butter 1/4 cup trim milk/water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 200 grams sultanas

Method:

1. Mix the rolled oats, coconut, sunflower seeds and wheatgerm in a large bowl.
2. Whisk Barker’s Apricot Blush, peanut butter, milk/water, brown sugar and vanilla essence together
3. Mix through the rolled oats.
4. Spread the mixture onto a large baking dish and bake at 170 degrees C for 20-30 minutes.
5. Stir from time to time and check to ensure the mixture doen’t burn.
6. Leave the mixture to cool
7. Add the sultanas.
8. Place in a lidded jar and store in the pantry.
 
Tips and tricks:

• Muesli can burn pretty easily, so keep a close eye on it – especially toward the end of cooking. It should be slightly golden when it’s done.
• The longer you bake it the crisper it will be.
• Serve with milk, yoghurt and/or fresh fruit. I also enjoy it with warm milk in winter:)
• Chopped apricots and/or chocolate chips could also be added.

This recipe is from our friends at Barkers of Geraldine, New Zealand. See more at: www.barkers.co.nz 

Pancakes of any kind are the perfect weekend breakfast treat. Whip up a batch of these Banana Pancakes this weekend, or treat dad to a special Father’s Day breakfast-in-bed next Sunday.

Ingredients:

– 2 cups of self-raising flour
– 1/2 cup of plain flour
– 2 tbs raw sugar
– 2 1/3 cups of milk
– 80g of melted butter, cooled
– 1 egg, lightly wisked
– Canola spray oil
– 3 banana’s chopped
– Honey to serve

Method:

1. Sift flours into a bowl, add sugar and stir to combine.

2. Add milk, melted butter and egg; and whisk to combine.

3. Heat a large pan over medium heat and spray with canola spray oil.

4. Add as many of a 1/3 cup of mixture to the pan as will fit. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface on the pancake, around 2 minutes. Turn over and cook for another minute. You can vary the sizes of the pancakes, which is great for presentation but be mindful that the cooking time will also vary.

5. Transfer pancakes to a plate and top with either another plate or a clean tea towel. I don’t recommend putting them in to oven to keep warm as they can dry out and become rubbery.

6. Wipe out the pan, spray with a little more oil and repeat until the mixture is finished. If you find the pan is getting too hot, which it probably will, turn the pan onto a low heat. This should be enough heat to cook the pancakes as you get to the end of the mixture.

7. Serve the pancakes stacked on a plate, topped with fresh banana slices and drizzled with honey – delicious!

Thanks to Jessica from Daily Gluttony for this delicious recipe: http://dailygluttony.wordpress.com/

We’re pretty excited about our upcoming trip to Japan for the Tokyo International Gift Fair. Along with sourcing lots of new products for Mr Gift, we’re also pretty excited about eating lots of yummy Japanese food. Japan is renowned for fresh, healthy food and one of the first Japanese dishes that comes to mind is Sushi. We love this Tuna Sushi recipe, especially for a light lunch. We reckon this one would also be a hit with dad for Father’s Day lunch next week…

Ingredients:

– 2 cups of rice – sushi, arborio or medium grain rice will do
– 2 cups of water
– 1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 and a 1/2 tbs caster sugar
– 1 tin of tuna chunks in springwater
– 2 tbs whole egg mayonnaise
– 2 shallots – only the white part, cut down the centre and finely sliced
– 1 large carrot finely grated
– 1 cucumber, seeds removed, sliced
– 1 avocado sliced
– 1 packet of dried nori
– small bowl of water

Method:
 
1. Add rice and water to rice cooker and switch to cook. If you don’t own a rice cooker you should seriously consider buying one. You can pick them up pretty cheaply and they are amazing and always produce light, fluffy, well cooked rice.
Once the rice has cooked, transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.

2. Add rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt to a small pan on low heat and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Many people add the ingredients directly to the rice without allowing them to dissolve, however this will result in a gritty rice and uneven flavour distribution.

3. Add the mixture to the rice, stir and allow to come to room temperature.

4. Drain the tuna to remove as much excess liquid as possible, add to a medium sized bowl with mayonnaise, carrot and shallots and mix until well combined.

5. Carefully remove the nori sheet from the packet and place shiny side down on a dried surface. Cover 3/4 of the sheet in a thin layer of the rice mixture, try for no more than 3-4 grains high. The rice should extent from side to side on the nori and finish 3/4 from the top.

6. Form a line of the tuna mix down the centre of the nori extending from side to side. Place a slice of the cucumber and avocado alongside the tuna mix.

7. Dip your fingers in the small bowl of water and run along the exposed end of the nori sheet.

8. Take hold of the front of the nori sheet and lift slightly, using a very quick motion roll the nori into a circle, speed is key here if you hesitate it WILL all fall apart. Repeat.

9. Allow to rest until the nori has softened. Slice the nori maki into 1-2cm pieces.

10. Serve with chopped chilli in soy sauce and wasabi. You can also serve it with kewpie if you wish.

Thanks to Jessica from Daily Gluttony for this delicious recipe: http://dailygluttony.wordpress.com/

It’s always tricky to know what to bring to a BBQ or party when you’re asked to ‘bring a plate of something’. This Cob Loaf Dip is a gorgeous dish that’s guaranteed to be a hit at your next party, or a tasty weekend snack. In fact, this would be a great ‘man snack’ for dad to enjoy whilst putting his feet up and watching the telly on Father’s Day…

Ingredients:

– 1 cob loaf
– 1 tub of lite sour cream
– 1 tub of cream cheese
– 1 can of pink salmon
– 1 packet of spring vegetable dried soup mix

Method:

1. Drain the salmon and add to a medium sized bowl. Remove the bones and mash.Add the sour cream, cream cheese and spring vegetable soup mix and stir until well combined.

2. Cut the top off the cob loaf and carefully pull out the bread from inside making a bowl of sorts. Make sure you don’t get too over excited with this step and damage the crust so your mixture leaks out.

3. Some people like to toast the bread bowl and bread but this is a personal preference and depends on if you like hard or soft bread.

4. Transfer your bread bowl to a nice plate, scatter the bread pieces around the outside, spoon in your mixture and place the bread lid askew. I also sprinkled some paprika on the top of the dip so it didn’t look too plain, but that is optional.

Thanks to Jessica from Daily Gluttony for this delicious recipe: http://dailygluttony.wordpress.com/

There are two secrets to a great pizza: a really hot oven, and a simple ‘less is more’ approach to the toppings. 

Check out this delicious recipe for tomato, basil and salami pizza – you’ll be surprised at how easy (and tasty) it is to make that you’ll think twice before reaching for the phone to order takeaway again. We reckon this one will also get dad’s seal of approval for an easy Father’s Day lunch or dinner. 

Ingredients:

Makes 2 large pizzas
• 500g flour
• 2 x 7g packet of dried yeast
• 250ml luke warm water
• 1 tbs salt
• Pizza sauce – you can make your own or use a store-bought one (Leggos is pretty tasty). 
• 300g hot salami
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes halved
• 3 handfuls of torn basil leaves
• 2 handfuls of fresh rockets leaves
• Mozzarella or pizza cheese

Method:

1. Tip the yeast into a large mixing bowl, add a little of the water, a sprinkle of flour and mix until combined into a sticky ball.

2. Cover with a dry tea towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the yeast ball from the bowl, add the flour making a well in the middle, return the yeast ball to the centre of the well, add salt and top with water.

4. Combine the mixture until it pulls away from the edges of the bowl and forms a ball.
5. Tip the mixture onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius  Pop your pizza stones or trays into the oven as it heats, this will ensure you get a crispy base on the pizza as it cooks.

7. Ensuring your work surface is well floured, cut the dough into two and stretch or roll the dough to the rough size of your trays/stones.

8. Top the first pizza with a good amount of pizza sauce making sure you spread it evenly and right to the edges, half the salami, half the cherry tomatoes, one handful of torn basil leaves and top with cheese. Repeat with the remaining pizza base.

9. Carefully transfer the pizza bases from the work surface to the trays/stones. If you have made the bases too big don’t worry. Simply fold the excess dough up on itself, you will see I have done this on the edge of the pizza. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese has turned golden and the base it firm to touch.

10. Place onto a serving board, I like to use a big cutting board, top each pizza with one handful of rocket leaves and half a handful or the remaining basil. 

Enjoy with dad for Father’s Day!

Thanks to Jessica from Daily Gluttony for this delicious recipe: http://dailygluttony.wordpress.com/