Battered fish

Hi all!

I haven't been in the cooking mood for a while now. With the heat that is the Australian Spring and Summer, I find it draining and by the end of the day I'm not bothered to move let alone cook.

However the other day I had a craving for fish and chips so managed to try something else with my frozen Basa fish fillets.

Who doesn't love a good battered fish?! I love thick crispy batter and this recipe is just perfect! But remember that this is a sometimes recipe the oil and the deep frying is tres artery clogging ;-p

Ingredients

1 cup self raising flour and extra flour for dusting
1 cup cold water
1-2 tsp baking powder
Corn oil for cooking
pinch of salt

Depending on how thick you want the batter to be add more or less water. Whisk it around until all the lumps are gone and the mixture is smooth.

Method

*If using frozen fish make sure that the fish is fully defrosted before cooking.*
-Heat oil in a large wok or a deep frying pan
-Dust each fish on the both sides with the flour.
-Place the fish one by one into the batter
-When taking the fish out of the batter remove excess batter by scraping the fish on the sides of the bowl.
-Gently slide fish into the oil
-Cook until golden

Serve with chips of your choice and a wedge of lemon. ENJOY!

Herbs Crusted Fish

Hi all!

For quite sometime now I've come to realise I cannot cook seafood. SHOCK, HORROR, GASP!

With this terrible realization I had to find a way to nail cooking seafood. For those who know know me well, they'll know I could do without chicken or meat, give me prawns (shrimp), octopus, calamari, fish, muscles and all the other glorious things you find under the sea!

For starters I thought I'd experiment with some frozen fish that I get from my local Aldi store. This way if things don't turn out well, at least I didn't pay too much for ruined fish.

Here is one of my best tries at fish. It is a herb crusted fish and it tasted AMAZBALLS!
And the best part it was so simple, its ridiculous.

Ingredients:

Basa fillet skinned and boned
1-2 cup of flour (I used wholmeal)
2-4 tablespoons of mixed herbs
Salt
Pepper
Oil

Firstly defrost the amount of fish you want to cook (skip this step if using freshly bought fish). Using a paper towel dry the fish so the flour doesn't go pasty.
On a large flat plate mix the flour, herbs, salt and pepper together onto the plate. Place each fish onto this flour mixture coat the fish generously.
Heat up a large fry pan with some oil (as much as you like ;-p) and gently place each fish into the oil. Cook on both sides for 5 mins.
Serve with salad or rice.

Happy eating!

Product review: Asian at Home

Hiya all!

My first product review in a very long time! Yay for me!

Today's review is on Aldi's Asia at home, Pad Thai meal kit.

I took a quick snap of the box, forgetting to snap the contents...great job I know. It came with a packet of rice noodles, two sachets of peanuts and one sachet of the stir in Pad Thai sauce.

Let me tell you, it tasted nothing like any Pad Thai I've ever eaten. It was very disappointing. Once the sauce is mixed in to the chicken and veggies, there wasn't that distinct flavour that you want in your Pad Thai. It wasn't unpleasant by any means, it is eatable but disappointing.

I picked up this product from my local Aldi for around $3.50 which I though was a bit much for this product. Sadly I will not be buying this product again, I will however try the Maggie Pad Thai T home kit which I saw at my local woolworths.

I hope this was product review was helpful for those who crave Thai at home and aren't bothered to make it from scratch :-p

I'm back!...with a recipe!

Hello! Hello!

Although it has been quite sometime since I last posted some pictures of eating habits, I have now finally finished (I hope) with studying and can focus mostly on baking and my blog.

Since last time I had posted, I managed to bake a sticky date pudding with a lush butterscotch sauce and a whopper of a chocolate fudge cake. That's it. Sad, I know.

The whole family has also been doing quite a bit of "clean eating" for over 6 months now. My interpretation of clean eating generally consists of eating wholemeal, protein of any sort and veg. The family including my little munchkin have treats on occasion, which explains my cake baking shortage.

A few weeks ago I had made two wholemeal pizzas with bbq chicken on one and steak on the other.

For my dough I used the same recipe as the Zaatar Pizza and instead of using plain white flour I substituted it for wholemeal flour.

BBQ Chicken Topping:

- Barbecued chicken, roast or fried chicken breast
-Thinly slices Spanish (red) onion
- Sliced Capsicum
-Sauteed mushrooms

Once the dough is rolled out to your preferred thickness I smothered the base with bbq sauce I then add cooked barbecued or roast chicken (fried up chicken breast is just as good).
Add the onions capsicum and mushrooms, then mozzarella cheese.

Steak Topping:

-500g beef strips
-Carmalised onion
-Sauteed garlic
-handful of roasted pine nuts or almonds

Once again once the dough is rolled out, throw on a few tablespoons of tomato paste onto the base.
Generously lather on the onions and garlic (these can be cooked together).
Add the beef and nuts.
Finally add the mozzarella cheese.

Presto! Easy and healthy.

Happy eating!

New look and a few pictures

Hi everyone!

It has been a very long time since I've last posted anything. I have finally changed the look of my blog, I hope you all like it as it reflects exactly what the majority of posts will be about!

As it the month of Ramadan where Muslims fast from dawn 'til dusk, I've been preparing some yummy stuff lately. Not all are new recipes but for the mean time until fasting is over, here are some pictures of dishes I've been dishing up before and during the fasting month!

Until the next post

Enjoy!

Zaatar Pizza (Manoush Zaatar)

Hello one and all!

I'm back with a very quick and easy pizza recipe and the dough used for this particular recipe is extremely versatile and can be used for almost anything!

I came across this 10 min. dough recipe a few years ago on an Arabic forum (can't remember the name for the life of me) and I found this amazing recipe! It comes in two parts and only takes 10 mins.

Part one:

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbs fast acting yeast

2 cups warm water

2 cups plain flour

Whisk to combine, cover with cling film and a tea towel and allow to sit for 10 mins.

Part two:

1/2 cup olive oil

3 cups plan flour

Mix in part two with part one, once the 10 mins. is over. At this point you can either use your hands to mix or use a mixer with the dough attachment to combine everything together.

You will find that the dough will keep rising and this recipe is good for at least 3 large pizzas.

For the Zaatar you can purchase the zaatar mix from a middle eastern grocer or dry your own oregano and add sesame seeds to it.

Zaatar mixture

In a bowl mix in 5 tbs of the zaatar mix with enough olive oil to cover the dry zaatar. Stir with a spoon.

Take a hand full of dough you like and press it down on a pizza tray or you can free handed-ly shape your dough. Spoon a few table spoons of the zaatar and oil mixture on to the dough and spread around to cover the surface. Place in the oven until golden*. Add a pinch of sumac on top of the pizza for added taste.

For a healthier option you can substitute plain flour for wholemeal flour, which is what I did!

*You may find that the zaatar has dried up you can simply add more mixture while its cooking to keep it moist.

Apple Crumble Ice Cream

Hello all!

This week I had a sudden urge to experiment with one of my favourite dessert combinations. Apple crumble and vanilla ice cream. So I went searching on other blogs and food websites to see how others were going about making the combined dessert.

While reading I found that there were quite a few recipes that called for at least 5 egg yokes for the vanilla ice cream. Although I am sure I've had ice creams with egg in it, but I wasn't comfortable using it for my experiment.

I finally came  up with my own combination and method of making the vanilla ice cream. As for the apple crumble I've been making it for a while now so this wasn't a problem for me.

The final product tasted exactly how I expected it too! It was luxuriously smooth and creamy. The pieces of apple and crumble were AMAZING and most importantly the crumble didn't go soggy. It stays crunchy and gets better every time you eat it. The thing that did it for me was the amazing cinnamon taste and smell. Gets me every time!

For those who would like to try my recipe please contact me here or via facebook.

Enjoy!

Food outings!

To make it up to everyone for my absents here are some pictures of my food adventures recently

If there is a dish you would like me to post a recipe for, Holla at me and I'll try it out and post up the recipe!

Dawoud Basha

I know it's been a while since my last post. Sorry! I have been rather flat of late and I haven't been cooking anything worth exhibiting.

A few weeks ago I made an Arabic dish called 'Dawoud Basha'. There are a few ways of making this dish, however when you've got a very active almost 2 year old and studying full time; fast, simple and tasty is what you always go for on a daily basis. I will admit since the last post there have been more days I've bought lunch or dinner than I've actually cooked o_O

Without further ado here is my version of 'Dawoud Basha'

Ingredients:

1kg of koft

1 big onion

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 big red capsicum (cut into strips)

1 big red capsicum (cut into strips)

1 can of good quality diced tomatoes

2-3 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of powdered beef stock

salt

pepper

water

Method:

1. Roll kofta into medium sized balls and set aside on a plate
2. Finely chop onion and garlic and fry until just golden
3. Add kofta balls and fry until sealed
4. Add both capsicums and fry for a minute
5. Pour in the can of diced tomatoes
6. Add water to barely covering the meat
7. Add tomato paste paste and powdered stock and stir
8. Add salt and pepper to taste
9. Cover and let the soup simmer on low for 20 mins or until kofta is cooked through

Serve with rice and enjoy!

Don't forget to check out my facebook page where I post extra pictures of things I make! Make sure to follow me on instagram @tastytantrums.

Until next time my lovelies XOXO

I'M BACK :-D

Hello all!

It has certainly been a very long time since I've last posted anything. I do deeply apologies, things were getting crazy with studying and just life in general. But now that things have settled down just a tad I'm ready to get posting again!

Just to tickle all your taste buds here are some pictures of some of my treats I've made since I've been gone!

That's all folks!

I will post recipes up for some of these pictures. I also hope to start taking orders of my treats in the near future! So those in the Sydney, Australia area keep your eyes peeled for when I announce my big opening!

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @tastytantrums
Like and share my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TastyTantrums

Love you all!