M'smen Moroccan flat bread...

I've had this book for a while now and finally got around to making some of the Moroccan bread called M'smen (pronounced 'em-semmen')...

Read about Hot Bread Kitchen and the good things they are doing for women...

They look good, don't they?

So, following the recipe, I made the dough in my stand mixer, kneading for about 6 minutes...

On a greased sheet, divide the dough into 12 pieces...

Roll into balls and let sit for 30 minutes...

On the greased sheet, gently spread out the dough with your fingers to a 10 inch circle...I found this great for my hands, being slathered with oil...

Place a tablespoon of butter/oil on the circle and smooth it all over then sprinkle with semolina...then fold the top half of the circle to the middle, then the bottom half up over to the middle, making a rectangle...then fold the left side to the middle and then the right side on top of that to form a little parcel...

Rest these parcels for 15 minutes (by the time you've finished the last one, the first one should be ready to cook)...

Taking the first one, on greased parchment paper (I used vegetable oil)...smoosh out the little square to an 18cm square, gently working the dough out with your fingers...

Heat a griddle or large pan, spray with olive oil, a plop the bread, paper side up on the griddle and cook for 3 minutes (this was the time I found to work best for me, you may need less)...

About half way through those first 3 minutes, you will see the dough go opaque, then peel off the paper...

Flip at the 3 minute mark and cook a further 3 minutes on the second side...

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I had two cooking while I flattened out the next two, reusing the paper...

I think it took about 45 minutes to cook the 12 breads, doing two at a time.  The finished product which looks exactly like the ones in the book and on their website, so I was chuffed!

I made a spiced Moroccan chicken dish with pak choy and cous cous for dinner which was delicious with the bread....

I will pick another bread to do soon...

Cheers - Joolz xx

Apple Butter...

This is something new to me so when I found a recipe, I just had to try it.

These are pink lady apples from growers Lenswood, in the Adelaide hills. I know they're not new seasons apples but they are still crisp and sweet and my favourite apple.

After peeling and using my apple cutter/corer, I had the apples done in about 10 minutes.

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In goes the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and cloves (I didn't have nutmeg)...

Now, the waiting game as they cook down for 4 hours...

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This was after 4 hours then I Bamixed it until smooth. Then I cooked it on low for a further 2 hours.

It is yummy! I will try it on some porridge or muesli but I think it will also be nice with roast pork. Its tangy and sweet but not too sweet.

Do you like my baby Bon Maman jars?

Cheers - Joolz xx

Slow Saturday...

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Miso salmon...

Spring in the garden...

Veggies for satay chicken pies...

A beautiful day here today...

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Pink Lady apples for apple butter...

Chai tea ready to go with milk and sugar...

Oh, it's been a lazy Saturday here.  When I got out of bed, my lower back was extremely sore and knotted up. I could barely bend at all so I gingerly tidied the kitchen after breakfast then basically sat, listening to music, surfing Instagram and Facebook and drinking chai tea. By 11am, I was back in bed for an hour but my slumber was interrupted not once, but twice by the doorbell ringing!  We have bees in a gum tree that we need removing and so they were here to survey the situation. Buzz off!

We are going out with friends for Chinese tonight so no meal prep needed but tomorrow we're having Moroccan chicken so I need to make some kind of flat bread so I've been reading recipes. I'm also going to make apple butter for the first time.  I have a slow cooker recipe that takes about 4-5 hours so I'll give that a go! It's meant to be raining tomorrow so that will suit me fine!  I hope you're having a restful weekend too!

 

Cheers - Joolz xx

  

Oh, poor South Australia has been tossed around with bad weather since Wednesday last week! Gale force winds, torrential rain and flooding saw the whole state plunged into darkness on that Wednesday. The rain radar map shows a front of rain going over Adelaide. I have never seen the dark colours show up on the radar before! It must have been scary!

There's always a rainbow somewhere!

We lost power from 3.50pm until about 10.10pm Wednesday. I found as many candles as I could.

We rigged up a light from our camper out to the pergola so we could barbecue and  started the gas hot water system in the camper so we had hot water too.

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There were a lot of people complaining how inconvenienced they were but I just see it as a freak weather event and losing power was just part of it.

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Brianna flew home in that terrible weather, we were glad to have her on the ground at our end!

By Friday, Kirby and Nate were home for the long weekend too! We had 'healthy' chicken fajitas for dinner.

Saturday, I made these healthy hazelnut cacao bombici balls for Kirby (she's doing a fitness plan at the moment).

The TV was rigged up outside under the pergola so we could watch the AFL Grand Final Western Bulldogs v Sydney Swans. We were pleased that the doggies got up and won! The last time they won a GF was in 1954!

A low cal sangria with lite cranberry juice, grape juice, mineral water and vodka...

Hot dogs for lunch, very simple.

We kicked on into the night and had steaks for dinner, chillin' by the fire.

All day Saturday, I was watching my Sally Sourdough starter.  I thought she was a deadun as she looked very unwell when I fished her out of the fridge. I drained of the hooch which had a very pungent smell, tipped all of Sally into a bowl and started feeding her. Feeds at 8.30am, 2pm then 10pm produced a few bubbles so I wrapped her up for the night to see what Sunday morning would bring. She was bubbly so I did the water float test and she passed, a teaspoon of her floating on top of a glass of water.  I measured out 300 gms for the dough, fed the remainder and popped it back in the jar, back into the fridge.  I mixed up the dough, covered it and let it sit in our good room, all day Sunday.

Then I got to and made these wholemeal dinner rolls for Sunday night dinner (shown here ready to bake).  I also prepped the meatball mix for later and made the pasta dough so we could make fettucini later.

We took a drive to Robe for lunch and had a beautiful lunch at Sails. This is my pork cutlet with colcannon mash and apple chutney jus...

Back home, it was time to cook off the meatballs, make the bolognese sauce and make the pasta. Busy, busy!

Here's the recipe I used for the meatballs and sauce...

Donna Hay Classic Spaghetti and Meatballs

While we went to Robe, Bri stayed home and made this beautiful pavlova for dessert! She is the pavlova queen! 

Nate fancied the lot for himself!

Food coma!

Sunday evening, I gently did the fold/turn trick with the sourdough then covered and left until Monday morning. Kaboom! She nearly exploded out of the bowl!

That is a good rise!

The resulting loaves...I'm very pleased!

One loaf went back to Adelaide with the kids, the other I am enjoying as toast this morning.

It was a fun long weekend with the girls and Nate home but boy was I tired when they left! Good times! 

Cheers - Joolz xx

Tasmania trip..,

I've finish posting about our trip to Tassie so hop on over to see the rest of it!

Cheers - Joolz xx